H2O: Just Add Water Nicole, Bella, and Lainey
by SerenSplash989
Summary: When three best friends, Nicole, Bella (not the same Bella from H2O), and Lainey go on a camping trip to Mako Island, their lives are changed forever. Now they need to deal with the stresses of being a mermaid along with regular teenage crap- secret crushes, snobby popular girls... the works.
1. Lainey Woods POV Camping at Mako

*Lainey Woods*

My name is Lainey Woods. I'm 15 years old, with honey blond, straight hair that falls to my waist that even a perm would only make slightly wavy, and bright blue eyes that, in the right light, get a tinge of green into them. I love to read, write stories or entries in my diary, journal… whatever you want to call it, go shopping with my friends, and go swimming. I'm a total chocoholic, and probably wouldn't survive a week without my skinny cow candy (mmm…), and can be a bit sarcastic at times. The only people I really feel close to are my two best friends, Nicole and Bella, and of course my family (minus my brat-of-a-sister, Destiny).

Oh yeah, I'm also a mermaid.

Did you find that shocking? Most people do. Well, actually, I wouldn't know, because I haven't told anyone other than Nici and Bells, since they're mermaids too, but I was pretty shocked to find out, so I'm assuming so would others. I can remember the day we first transformed into mermaids like it was just yesterday… probably because it was…

_"Lainey!" called out Nicole, her brownish-red hair fluttering in the wind as she urged me forward. "Hurry it up!"_

_ "I'm coming!" I shouted, panting as I climbed up a small, but still challenging, rock wall. I grimaced as some dust from the rocks fell into my wedged sandals. Great. And these ones were new._

_ Who's idea was it to come camping, anyways? Surely not mine. And at _Mako Island_ too? This place is like a freakin jungle, if you ask me. I'll be surprised if we ever find our way back to the camp. We'll probably be stuck on this stupid island for eternity._

_ The thing is, I don't have a very high tolerance for camping. I mean, really? What good comes out of it? _"Family time"_, my dad tells me. Yeah right! I totally respect and love my parents, but Destiny was, let's face it, "destined" to be a brat. I chuckled at my play on words there. I know. I have terrible humor._

_ And the food here! Gross hot dogs galore, if you ask me… which nobody ever does! If it was up to me, we'd be drinking hot chocolate made over the fire instead of powdered Gatorade drinks, delicious chocolate fondue over banana slices instead of ooey, gooey marshmellows, and fresh fish, my dad's specialty, him being a fisherman and all, instead of these store-bought hot dogs made from who-knows-where using who-knows-what. At least I remembered this year to bring a stash of Skinny Cow candies._

_ The worst part is probably the limited clothes supply. All the years before on our family camping trips, I've been cursed to denim shorts and holister tees. Not that I don't like the simple look, but for two whole weeks? I'd rather die._

_ This year, though, I decided to try something new, called "packing fashionable clothes". I remember that when my mom and dad saw what I was packing, they rolled their eyes and muttered something about silly teenagers._

_ But obviously my plan of wearing my fashionable clothing didn't really work out as planned. Now, my once gorgeous ensemble is now roughed up sandals, a broken turquoise necklace (and I really liked that one!), and dirt marks all over the milky white minidress I was wearing. Sigh._

_ I gritted my teeth as I (finally) reached the tip-top of the rock wall. Nicole leaned down over the edge and fearlessly pulled me up. Nicole is sort of the adventurous one in our group. In fact, it was her idea to go on this stupid exploration thing anyways._

_ "Nici?" whined Bella, biting her nails on her left hand and twirling a lock of her curly dark brown hair in the other. She peered over the edge. She was probably was wondering how we would get back to the camp. I was wondering the same thing. "Are you sure we should be here? I mean, Lainey's parents told us to stay close to the camp and…"_

_ "Chill Bells!" said Nicole as she dusted off her khaki capris fit for exploring- unlike my major outfit feau pa. "They're out getting firewood, and if it goes anything like last time, which I'm sure it will thanks to your devil sister, they probably won't be back till way later tonight. And that gives us lots of time to explore!" She looked out into the distance. "Hey, we should go farther into the jungle."_

_ That put Bella into near hysterics. "Nici, I really don't think that's a good idea. People say that there are all sorts of creepy things here!"_

_ Nicole just rolled her eyes. "Who says that?"_

_ "The ones that make it back alive!"_

_ "Bella," I said, rolling my eyes too. She can be so dramatic sometimes. All of those mystery shows couldn't be helping her with that. "I'm sure it'll be fine."_

_ "See?" pointed out Nicole. "Woods here agrees with me. And this country is a democracy."_

_ "I'm not agreeing with anyone!" I said, not wanting to get dragged into another one of Nici and Bella's famous arguments, and a teensy bit annoyed she kept calling me by my last name. It got so annoying. "Honestly, Nicolett Paige," I heard her grind her teeth at that one. Someone here didn't like her full name either. "Mako Island is basically a shark breeding ground, and even though we're on land, there are all sorts of …"_

_ "I know, I know. I'm not stupid, okay?" said Nicole with an obvious edge to her voice. Even I couldn't miss that she didn't quite believe herself. After all, I'm sort of the smart one of the group. Bella was pretty smart too, but never tried to get into more advanced classes at school. She didn't really like being the center of attention. She was sort of shy. "We'll be careful. Okay?"_

_ I sighed but reluctantly agreed. It's not like anything major would happen. Bella was just being dramatic. Nothing unusual happens here._

_ How wrong I was._

_ We continued walking into the jungle/forest thing until we suddenly came to a small stream. The problem was, it was too big to jump across or go around, but too small to have to go find another way across._

_ "Nici," Bella said with a strange edge to her voice. "I'm _not_ crossing that stream." _**(A/N: This is the stream that Bella fell into when she went with Will to Mako before. It's not explained in here exactly the same, but it's more or less the same place, even though in the show it is not as close to the moon pool as in my story.) **

_ "Geez, chillax Bells!" said Nici, a bit confused. "What's the drama over?"_

_ "You have to ask?" Bella practically shouted. "You know how afraid I am of water!"_

_ Oh. Now we understood. I immediately went to her side, ignoring the pain in my ankles. "It's okay, Bella. We can always go back. Right Nici?" I said as I turned to glare at her._

_ You see, Bella is extremely hydrophobic. She can hardly stand to take a bath. Once, she even skipped school because of a mild rainstorm. I could understand how she didn't want to go near the stream._

_ "Well," Nici started, as I could see she was trying to come up with a diplomatic solution. "We could try to put boulders across for you so you could cross?"_

_ "Do you really think that would work?" asked Bella nervously._

_ "Uh…" I nudged her. "Yeah! Yeah, it would."_

_ I could see Bella weighing the decisions in her mind. She finally came to a conclusion. "Okay,I'll try. But you guys won't let me fall… right?"_

_ "Of course!" we said at the same time._

_ Nicole had volunteered to place the boulders. After they were in place, she tested them. Once she made it to the other side, she shouted back saying it was fine. I decided to go next._

_ I took a hesitant step, not sure if my wedged sandals were willing to cooperate with me or not. When I didn't fall into the water beneath me, I took another step. Huh. This was sort of easy._

_ "It's fine Bella!" I called back. "You can do it!"_

_ I saw Bella shudder as she took a step onto the first rock, the entire time looking at the rushing water below. And she took another. And another. She was almost to the end when suddenly her baby blue flip flops slid out beneath her, and she fell right into the stream._

_ "Bella!" I shouted as I slowly made my way through the rushing water, despite my efforts to go faster. "Are you all right?"_

_ "Ow…" was all I heard from her. "I think… I think I twisted my ankle."_

_ I looked at her ankle to see, lo and behold, it was indeed swollen. I looked up at Nici."Do you think we can get her back to the camp with her like this?"_

_ "Uh…"_

_ I groaned. Of course. Leave it to Nicole to come up with some brilliant idea and have it end up like this._

_ "Maybe we could try tracing our step back, and then finding a way around the rock wall. That way we can get back to the camp!" Nicole looked pretty proud of herself for coming up with something reasonable-ish sounding._

_ I nodded. "Worth a shot." I turned back to Bella. "Do you think you can stand?"_

_ "I… think so." She said, a painful look on her face as she tried to stand on her feet. She looked back at us. "Will you guys help me?"_

_ "Of course." Nici said. When I got out of the water I realized one of my sandals had fallen off. I sighed and continued._

_ After a while of backtracking our steps we realized that we must have took a wrong turn._

_ "Nici!" I whined, annoyed. "We haven't been to this place before!"_

_ "No Lainey, I am absolutely positive that we have…"_

_ "You've said that for the past half an hour! Let's face it! We're _lost!"

_ Nicole just rolled her eyes. "Now look who's being dramatic." She pointed towards the distance. "If we get over that, I'm sure we'll find our way back to civilization."_

_ "Oh no." said Bella with wide eyes as she looked at the slippery rocks we had to jump to and from. _**(A/N: This is where Cleo fell into the moon pool cavern thing. Just wanted to let you know.)**_ "I am not jumping across that!"_

_ "I'll go first Bella." Nicole said. "It'll be fine." Nici headed towards the rocks as I heard Bella mumble "Where have I heard that before…"_

_ Nici walked up to the edge of the rock we were now standing on and quickly hopped to the other rock, stumbling a bit. She looked back at us. "Don't worry! It's easy!"_

_ Then Bella walked up to the rock. I was supposed to catch her if she fell._

_ She peered into the trickling water beneath her. She then turned to Nicole. "Nici, is it really slipper-woah! Aagh!" She screeched as she fell into a hole in the rock I hadn't seen before. I reached forward to grab her but just ended up falling in after her._

_ "Oomph!" I grunted as I landed on the sandy bottom of the hole. I realized my other shoe was gone too now. That's just fabulous._

_ I turned to Bella. "Are you okay?" She nodded._

_ "Woah!" shouted Nicole as she fell in right behind me._

_ "Nici!" I screeched in irritation. "Why did you do that?"_

_ "Well you both fell in. So I came in after!" said Nicole as if this was a perfectly reasonable explanation. I rolled my eyes. "Great, now we're stuck in here!"_

_ "Where _is_ here… exactly?" asked Bella to no one in particular, looking around the small, blue cave we had fallen into._

_ "I'm not sure." I said, a little nervous. What if we never got out of here?_

_ "Guys!" yelled Nicole from behind us. Bella and I spun around, or rather, I spun around while Bella craned her neck in the direction of where Nicole was standing, trying not to move her foot, to see what the commotion was about._

_ There was a few rocks as blue as the rest of the cave, and they slanted up, as if they were steps…_

Maybe it's a way out! _I thought to myself. Nicole seemed to have the same idea._

_ "Woah." I heard Nicole say from inside the cavern that the steps led to. Curiosity taking over, after telling Bella I'd be back, I tip-toed over to the steps, trying not to step on any rocks, given that I was barefoot._

_ The sight inside the cavern made me repeat Nicole. "Woah." The cave was a dazzling, sparkling blue, with bright crystals shining through cracks in the wall. The walls continued up, with a wide hole at the top. It looked sort of like… a volcanoe. _**(A/N: In case you haven't noticed… this is the moon pool)**

_ But the most gorgeous of all of the sights was the small pool of water in front of us, ringed with dark rocks and steps leading into the pool. The water was bright and enchanting, and I could not take my eyes off of it._

_ Nicole and I must have been staring a while because next thing I knew, Bella was calling out, "What are you guys doing in there?" I heard her stumble into the cave. I turned to see her leaning against the wall, gaping._

_ "Isn't it amazing…" Nicole said, almost to herself as she walked towards the pool and ran her fingers through the fluorescent water._

_ "Yeah." I said, impressed. "It is." I helped Bella over to the pool and we sat there._

_ "So… beautiful…" I whispered as I dipped my toes into the cool water. It felt good._

_ Nicole then submerged herself in the water, slipping slowly into the pool. "Guys, come on in! The water's so nice!"_

_ Bella went pale. "No way." She said. "I never meant to fall into the stream and I don't think I'll be going in any type of water any time soon!"_

_ "Bella," I said as I put my hand on her shoulder. "It could be a way out."_

_ She shook her head. "No."_

_ "Please?"_

_ "No!" she said as she crossed her arms. She can be so stubborn._

_ "Well what else are we going to do? Stay stuck down here forever?" Nicole asked, a little irritated._

_ Bellas eyes got wide. "Is that really going to happen?"_

_ "Not if we at least _try_ to swim out." I tried explaining. "And if it doesn't work, I'm sure they'll send search parties and they would eventually find us, or we would find another way out sooner or later. But if we don't try…"_

_ She looked nervously at the water then, with a shudder, slipped into the cool water._

_ "See?" told Nicole a little smug. "I told you…" Just then, a bright light caught our attention. We looked up to see a full moon right over the volcanoe's hole. I felt a strange sensation inside of me… like butterflies, but warmer._

_ "Guys… is this… supposed to happen?" asked Bella as the whole pool started bubbling like my mom's Jacuzzi. Bright sparks started drifting from the water up to the moon. Then it stopped._

_ "What… was… that?" I asked._

_ "I have no idea." Said Nicole, obviously as baffled as me. "But we should go… it's getting sort of late. Ready Bells?"_

After that, we has swum through this small canal underneath the pool and managed to get to a spot where we could walk back to camp. Bella had noticed that her ankle didn't hurt anymore, and our cuts and scrapes we had acquired from our little jungle adventure had vanished. We thought maybe the pool had something to do with it.

When we got back to camp, we _all_ got a lecture from my parents on why we shouldn't stray too far away from the camp, and we were practically grounded. No leaving the campsite without "adult supervision" (I could practically hear Nici's eyes rolling at that one).

We didn't know how much we had really changed until we had gone for a walk along the beach this morning…

_"Come on Bella!" me and Nicole shouted early this morning. "The water won't bite!"_

_ She shook her head. "It's okay, I'll just watch you guys." Nici rolled her eyes._

_ "Suit yourself."_

_ My parents were making breakfast and Destiny was collecting seashells on a different beach farther away from the campsite, so Nicole, Bella and I all had this little beach to ourselves._

Splash!_ I turned around to see Nicole laughing as she tossed water on my belly, instantly making me jump. I grinned and picked up a handful of seawater and threw some back at her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella looking at some rocks, facing away from us._

_ Suddenly, I felt a weird sensation in my legs, and the next thing I knew I was falling. And I wasn't alone. Nicole was right next to me._

_ The first thing I saw was a big, golden tail where Nici's legs used to be. I stared at her in shock. She was staring at me too._

_ "YOU'RE A FISH!" we both screamed at each other._

_ That seemed to get Bella's attention. She turned towards us. "Oh my god," she said, just as shocked as we were. "You're both fish!" She ran over to us as we tried to scoot closer to her, very difficult to do in our "tails"._

_ "What happened? And what are these…" She didn't need to say it. She stoked her hand against my wet, slimy tail. It was a strange feeling. I didn't have two legs anymore. It was one. One part._

_ Then Nicole and I weren't the only ones with tails. A few seconds later, Bella was right next to us, tail and all._

_ She started hyperventilating as she took in her golden scaly bra top and the tail. "I'm one too?"_

_ "Lainey? Bella? Nicole?" I heard Destiny call out from a distance. "What are you dweebs screaming about?"_

_ We looked at each other in alarm. We couldn't let her see us like this. We scooted farther onto land and hid behind some big boulders._

_ "Where are you guys?" shouted Destiny. She was getting pretty close to the rocks we were hiding behind. I looked at Bella and Nicole nervously._

_ Suddenly we were all water for a second, then our tails we gone. So were our tops. I was left back in my blue floral patterned bikini and silver sandals._

_ "There you guys are!" said Destiny as she turned around the corner, one hand on her hip, the other twirling a strand of her wavy, honey-highlighted hair. "What was so important for you guys to have to yell about and cause me to lose focus in my shell hunting?" God she can be a brat._

_ "Oh, it's nothing." Said Nicole, the only one of us recovered from the transformation. We were just about to go back to our tent. Right guys?"_

_ "Whatever." Said Destiny with a roll of her eyes and a flip of her hair. "See ya around." She turned on her heels and strutted away, her tanned skin glowing in the sunset. She was so pretty. It made me want to puke._

Now we're all in our tent, talking about our new "developments". I was confused in a lot of areas of this, but there was one thing I was sure of. I was a mermaid.

**(A/N: So… how did you like it? The second chapter, this time in Nicole's perspective, will be out shortly. I'm writing this so that each chapter is one person's perspective. No switching POV's in the middle of a chapter. Review please! I want to know how I did! I mentioned Gatorade and Hollister in this, so… just sayin, I don't own them! Although you probably already knew that. I also don't own H20: Just Add Water or the storyline, but I do own my characters. By the way, even though Lainey was the POV in this chapter, she isn't the main character. Her, Bella and Nicole all are. Anyways, Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!)**


	2. Nicole Paige POV Swimming

*Nicole Paige*

As I grabbed a white tank top to slip over my red bikini in the tent, Bella and Lainey were already bombarding each other with questions.

"What's going on?"

"Why did this happen?"

"Is this even possible?"

"I mean, to us of all people?"

"This isn't normal.'"

"Are we crazy?"

"This must be a dream…"

"I had a tail!"

"I was _water_ for a second there!"

"GUYS!" I shouted, getting their attention. "Stop freaking out about it!"

Lainey raised her eyebrows. "Okay, I won't freak out. Why would I freak out about being a _mermaid?_" Sigh. Lainey can be even more dramatic than Bella sometimes, especially when she lets her sarcastic side take over.

"Don't say that!" yelled Bella. "We are _not_ fish!"

"Mermaids!" I said in a gleeful, sing-song voice. "We're mermaids!"

"Stop it!" she said exasperated. I am not a mermaid. I'm just dreaming. I'll wake up soon…"

"It's not a dream!" said Lainey. "This is _real!_ Somehow, we…"

"Look," said Bella, angry now. "I know _exactly_ what happened." She glared at me. "All because of _you_, Nicole, and your stupid idea to go exploring, we found that stupid cave, and that stupid pool, and now we're freakin stupid MERFREAKS!"

"Bella…" Lainey was trying to calm her down. Always the most humane and diplomatic out of the three of us once she cools down. "If you just try to accept that…"

"Accept?" Bella raised her eyebrows. "I don't want to have anything to do with this! You guys can do whatever the hell you want, but I'm out!" She stormed out of the tent. Yee-owch. She must have been pretty mad. I've never heard her swear in my life.

"Bells…" I was about to go after her, but Lainey stopped me.

"Let her work off some steam." said Lainey. I knew she was right.

"Do you think she was right?" Lainey asked me. I looked at her like she was crazy. She saw my look and quickly explained. "About the pool, I mean. Do you think the pool was what made us… mermaids?"

"It's possible." I said. In fact, I was pretty sure of it. I knew that I had had a funny feeling in there.

"What do you think makes us grow tails anyways?"

I didn't really know the answer to that one. It could have been _anything_ on that beach we were on. But Bella was on the beach too, and she didn't transform until she touched Lainey's tail…

That's it! "Water!" I shouted in glee, happy that I had made a discovery.

"No need to freak out, I've got some right here." She handed me a water bottle, obviously not understanding what I meant.

"No!" I exclaimed, grabbing the water bottle. "Water's the key!"

Lainey still looked confused. "Not following…"

I opened the bottle and splashed some on her.

"What was that for?"

I counted to about 10 seconds before her tail appeared. "I was right! Water! It makes us transform!"

Lainey was catching on as she started to dry herself off with a towel that was convieniantly right next to her. "So you're saying that, 10 seconds after we touch water, we grow these… tails?"

"And they vanish when we're dry."

"My clothes come back too when I'm dry." As if to demonstrate, her clothes reappeared. "Where do they go to when we're wet?"

"I'm not sure."

"Yeah me neither." Lainey usually knows everything. I was surprised that I was the one who figured out the water thing. Maybe Lainey was just too in shock to think clearly. I mean, who wouldn't be?

"Maybe we should go learn some more about our mermaidness." I suggested cautiously, trying to make this come out as if I really want to learn more, not just play around with my tail.

"What are you saying?"

"Well…" I said slowly. "I thought… maybe we should go for a swim?"

"But I've never swam like a mermaid before. What if I drown? We didn't have any gills or anything on our necks when we transformed earlier on the beach." Lainey pointed out. She did have a point there.

"I'm sure we wouldn't drown. Come on, aren't you at least a _little_ curious too?" She sighed but agreed.

"Ready?" she asked me. I grinned.

"I was born ready." With one more look at each other, we stepped into the waves, salty sea water splashing against our legs. Ten seconds later, our legs disappeared, tails taking their place. I don't think I could ever get used to the feeling. We scooted farther into the water, and, after a deep breath, dived into the surf.

At first I panicked. I was so used to swimming with legs. I tried the kicking motion I was so used to, but my tail didn't recognize the motion, and just ended up flailing wildly. My oxygen supply was quickly running low; my breaths were coming out in short bursts of bubble as I tried to swim. I didn't know if I could make it to the surface if I ran out of air…

Suddenly I stopped moving. My breath stopped coming out in bubbles. I didn't feel the same panick as before, the feeling that I wasn't going to make it. I looked around. The ocean was calm. Peaceful. The excess worries trickled away, leaving me with a nice, cool feeling. Even though the water had been pretty chilly getting in, it felt just warm enough to me in my mermaid body. I took another look around. I had never known there was so much life here! There was coral, shells, fish and other sea animals. They didn't flinch away from me. They came just as close as they would to anything else in the sea.

It felt like a dream. A bright, vivid dream. I felt more happy than I ever have before. I let the sensation fill me. The next thing I knew, I was swimming. My body rolled in the water, just as graceful as a dolphin, perhaps more. Swimming had never been this effortless!

I noticed that I didn't feel the need for air yet. I usually can only hold my breath for maybe a minute, depending on if someone was challenging me or not, but as a mermaid, I haven't felt like I needed to go to the surface to catch my breath, and I've probably been down here for five minutes already. Maybe mermaids can hold their breath for a long time or something.

I turned and saw Lainey, smiling this huge, dumb grin as she rolled with the waves. She had obviously made the same discoveries as I did. She looked so darn happy. I hope I didn't look that happy. And stupid.

Even with those thoughts, I still felt the corners of my lips twitch into a slight grin. I could accept that.

All of this seemed just too good to be true. This place was a wonderland… and I was in it.

In my excitement, I started to swim faster. And faster. Suddenly, there was a stream of bubbles behind me as I surged forward in the water. I froze in shock. I looked behind me to see that I had gone a far distance in only a few seconds. Super speed. Cool.

Lainey was right behind me. She also left a stream of bubbles in her path. She looked at me and grinned. I knew why. It was such an exhilarating feeling.

She pointed towards the small canal we had sum through the night before to get back to camp. I looked at her and nodded.

Taking our time, we swam into the cave and slowly emerged from the water. Surprisingly, even though we were swimming for over 15 minutes, we didn't gasp for breath as soon as we surfaced.

"That… was amazing!" exclaimed Lainey with the same dumb grin plastered on her face.

"It was…" I said as I pulled my upper torso onto the sandy rocks, examining my tail. It was so beautiful. There was a seamless merge from scales to skin; the scales were golden and didn't feel strange or foreign to me at all. They felt just like another part of me.

"I can't believe Bella is so against this!" said Lainey. "I mean, yeah, there are some sacrifices, and I know she's scared of the water, but this… words can't describe this!" She was right, yet again.

Honestly, this was probably the best thing that had ever happened to me. Swimming in the ocean… it really did feel like a dream. I don't think I would ever get sick of this. And I agreed with Lainey. I couldn't see Bella's negative point of view on all of this. It didn't make sense.

"Race you back to camp?" I asked Lainey, a devilish grin on my face.

She returned the grin, and, without another word, we slipped into the vibrant dreamland, racing our way back to reality.

**(A/N: Sorry that this one wasn't that long. It's only like half the length of the first chapter. I didn't want to put too many things that weren't that important into this. Again, thanks for reading and feel free to state how you feel about this. If you have some suggestions or if you noticed some mistakes, I'm all ears! I hope you like the story line so far. Next chapter focuses on Bella's point of view. I know, you're probably thinking, what the heck is going on in her brain? Well, you'll see soon. I'll probably get some more chapters out soon too, so I hope you'll like them! Thanks!)**


	3. Bella Edwards POV Friends Again

*Bella Edwards*

**(A/N: Haha, lol! Just realized… in twilight, bella and Edward love each other and whatever, and my character's name is bella Edwards! A friend pointed it out to me. Anyways, let the story begin!)**

_I can't understand why Lainey and Nicole are so frickin peachy about all this! _I thought to myself in aggravation as I fingered a small seashell I had picked up from the shore. _Don't they even know how much we'll have to give up if we can never get wet?_ I had figured out that water did the trick only a few minutes ago. I don't even know if Lainey and Nicole knew yet. They'll figure it out sooner or later.

I heard laughing and splashes from behind me. I also heard two girls saying what sounded like "I totally beat you!" and "No, I beat you!". I turned the corner of the large boulder I was sitting behind, then quickly dove back behind it. It was Nici and Lainey! Of course! Curious to see what was going on, I peeked my head out a little.

"That was so much fun!" Nicole said to Lainey as they scooted onto the beach.

"Yeah!" said Lainey, looking irritatingly happy. Ugh. "Too bad Bella didn't come…" I stiffened when I heard my name and narrowed my eyes. _Why would I ever come?_

"I know right?" said Nicole, looking amazed that anyone would want to miss the opportunity to be a merfreak swimming with the dolphins. "Maybe we should try to tell her how cool it was. Then she'll definitely want to go!" I clenched my hands into fists as she spoke. Did she think I was a retard or something? Or that my fear of water wasn't real? I may be half fish, but that doesn't make my fear of water go away.

"What the heck?" exclaimed Lainey as she saw something that I didn't really care to look at. I was too angry at them. "What's the water doing?"

I creased my forehead. I guess I did want to know what they were looking at. I turned the corner again and saw a small puddle of water bubbling up and evaporating into steam. I didn't think that was normal. In shock, my fingers unclenched. Suddenly the bubbling stopped.

"What do you think made that happen?" asked Nicole.

"Not sure." Said Lainey, a shadow of doubt crossing her face. I don't know if Nicole realizes this, but Lainey really hates to not know things. She's usually the smart one. Except in science. We all hate science.

I looked down at my fingers, curious. I clenched my fingers into a fist again, focusing on another puddle only a few feet away from me. It started bubbling again. I glanced towards Nici and Lainey, but they were busy talking about holding their breath or something. I clenched my fingers tighter and tighter, and in seconds the puddle had evaporated. Despite everything, my lips curved up into a grin and I whispered the word "cool".

_No!_ I shook my head to get all thoughts about how being a mermaid might be a good thing out of my brain. Because being a mermaid was definitely _not_ a good thing. I couldn't let myself be brainwashed by swimming with dolphins and cool powers and shiny tails. Being a mermaid was a bad thing and I knew it.

I wondered if Nicole and Lainey had found out their power yet. Could they heat stuff too? Or could they do different powers? In the Secret Circle and Charmed, they could do all sorts of powers and other magic stuff.

Somebody tapped me on my shoulder. I quickly turned around, ready to be armed with reasons being a mermaid sucked.

But it wasn't Nicole or Lainey. It was Destiny. I felt a little disappointed, even though I knew I shouldn't. I quickly glanced towards the beach to make sure Nici and Lainey weren't there, and they weren't. "What do you want Destiny?"

"I was, like, really bored, so I was wondering if you wanted to, like, go fetch seashells for me and help me make them into necklaces and stuff." The whole time she was talking she was inspecting her French fingertips, as if there was some microscopic mark on them that wouldn't be tolerated. I rolled my eyes. She is so spoiled.

"Can't you do it yourself?"

She sighed as if I was too young to understand. Which is really weird because she's only 12, which is 3 years younger than me. "Never mind." She said as she continued to inspect her nails. "I guess I'll just go do something else then. I just thought you looked pretty bored doing nothing here. I don't get why you aren't hanging out with Nicole and my sister. You always are." She was still looking at her nails. It was sort of annoying. I almost wanted to rip out her nails.

"Well…" I tried to explain without giving much away. "We had sort of a… disagreement."

"Whatever." She said while still looking at her nails. "It's not like I care." She (finally) looked away from her nails just to check out an imaginary stain on her expensive jean skirt. The Woods family was pretty loaded.

I waited for her to leave, but she didn't.

"So, what did you fight over?" she asked. I gritted my teeth. I was kinda hoping she wasn't going to ask that.

"Ummm…" I tried to come up with something reasonable sounding. "We just had a little fight. No biggie."

"What?" she let out a snort. "Did you guys debate whose lame outfit was better?"

I frowned and looked at my outfit. It was a pink bikini with a yellow, spaghetti strap sundress over it. There were little red cherries along the bottom hem. It wasn't that bad. "My outfit isn't bad!"

She raised her eyebrows and looked me up and down, then shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat." She said. Then she did her little strut-walk-thing that Nicole, Lainey and I used to make fun of.

I was actually a little mad about her comments. Destiny is _such_ a brat! She always has been and always will. It made me annoyed that she always got away with it, too, since her parents were never around to catch her rude remarks. And we could never do something.

_Wait, _I realized. _I could!_ With a huge grin on my face, I spotted a puddle Destiny was about to walk right through and when she put her foot over it, I clenched my fingers into a fist and turned the puddle into steam.

"OW!" screamed Destiny as she grabbed her tanned calf, which now had a small red burn mark on it."What the heck…" I giggled. The best part was, she didn't even know it was me!

My grin quickly turned back into a frown again. I shouldn't be happy about this! … Should I?

Again my thoughts wavered. Nicole and Bella were trying to make the best of this… what did I look like to them? A lazy, ungrateful bum who doesn't accept the gift she's given? That's not it at all, but maybe that's how they see me. If only I wasn't scared of water…

I made my choice right there. I'd try to swim.

I took a few deep breaths, watching the tides go back and forth, back and forth. The swishing sounds of the waves should've had a calming effect, but honestly, it scared me to death.

To keep myself from freaking out, I closed my eyes and thought of my nice, warm, _dry_ bed at home, the silky sheets covering me like a cocoon…

Better. Not freaking out as much.

I opened my eyes as a small wave splashed close to my feet. I quickly evaporated the water before it could reach me.

_This is silly!_ I told myself. _I'm a mermaid for crying out loud!_

Taking another deep breath, I jumped into the waves, kicking until I was underneath the surface.

In a few seconds, my legs disappeared, replaced with my freakish tail.

I started panicking. Why did I do this? I couldn't swim as a human, what made me think I was going to be able to swim as a mermaid? Now, because of my carelessness, I was going to drown! Oh, how I'll miss my parents and my brothers and Nici and Lainey and even that little brat Destiny…

I realized that I seemed to have a lot of time to think about this for someone who was drowning.

I finally noticed that I wasn't running out of air. I didn't feel the need to surface for another breath. As I looked around, I had this off feeling that my worries seemed so silly here, with all of this peacefulness around me. I looked down at my tail and realized that swimming would come naturally. With a quick flick of my tail, I sped away.

I stopped abruptly, a little shocked. I quickly looked behind me to see that I had swum pretty far in that little time. There were bubbles in my path. Maybe mermaids can swim fast or something.

I slowed my speed and rolled with the waves. Oddly enough, the water didn't feel cold to me.

I heard some sort of chirping noise from somewhere behind me in the distance. I wasn't sure I knew what it was. Then the little creature approached me.

It was a dolphin. It was sleek, grey, and pretty adorable. It got sort of close to me and I flinched away. The dolphin just cackled a little dolphin laugh and nudged me. It seemed pretty comfortable to be around me.

Hesitantly, I pet the animal with my hand. He (or she) felt nice and soft. Letting a little smile creep onto my lips, I grabbed the dolphin's fin and held on, easily keeping up with it.

After swimming for probably half an hour, I realized I was getting an annoying feeling in my lungs. It wasn't uncomfortable, yet, but it must have meant I was through at least a quarter of my air supply. I pointed towards the surface and the dolphin seemed to understand. We swam to the surface together. I took a deep breath and was about to go back under, when suddenly two large wakes in the water sped past me. _Nicole and Lainey!_ I thought. They must be swimming too.

I looked and saw that they must be headed to Mako Island. Probably to that pool we transformed in.

I wanted to see them. I knew that I hadn't left on a very positive note the last time I saw them.

I dove back underneath the water and pet the dolphin once more before waving goodbye. He, or she, cackled once more before disappearing into the blue.

With a powerful flick of my tail, I was off, and I had reached the pool in only a minute. I was swimming in as I saw their tails swishing in the water. I felt them tense up as they felt the presence of someone else entering the pool.

I surfaced and saw their bewildered expressions. They probably didn't expect me to be swimming anytime soon.

"Hi guys." I said as I floated over to them, setting my arms down onto the rocks.

There was silent for a moment before they erupted in joy. "Bella!" They both shouted as they flicked their tails to come give me a hug. "We missed you!"

"Alright alright!" I managed to say as they squeezed the breath out of me. "Just don't suffocate me!"

"Right." Said Lainey as she backed away a little. Nicole just scooted over right next to me. She looked me up and down.

"Something changed about you, Bells." Said Nici with a grin. She didn't even need to say it.

"Are you complaining?" I asked.

They both laughed. "No."

We sat there (or rather, drifted there) talking for a few minutes, admiring our glittering tails and the calming effect of the cave. It felt like a second home.

After a while of discussing our breath holding abilities and how fast we could swim, each of them swore that they were faster than the other, we just floated for a while on our backs, enjoying the blissful, almost unreal moment of floating in a magical cave as mermaids. Not something you get to do every day.

"Hey, have you guys found your power?" I asked. They looked as if they had no idea what I was talking about.

"What? Powers?" Lainey asked.

"Here, I'll show you." I found a little puddle and balled my hand into a fist, the puddle turning into steam as it evaporated.

"Woah, how'd you do that?" Nicole asked, amazed. Lainey looked impressed too.

"I don't really know." I admitted. "I just made a fist and it sort of… happened. I was wondering if you guys could heat things too.

"Well, I'll try!" volunteered Nicole. Of course she'd want to try first. She was probably just _dying_ to see if she had cool superpowers, even though cool isn't exactly the word I would use. Scary's more like it.

She glided over in front of an even tinier puddle of water and clenched her fingers into a fist.

Nothing happened. She tried again. Still nothing. Tried the other hand. Nada. Tried both hands. Zero.

"Why isn't it working?" she asked, confused. She looked at me and Lainey. We shrugged.

"Maybe only Bella gets a power." Said Lainey as she rested her head on her arms. "You lucky duck!"

"When did you find out about your power?" asked Nicole.

"Just a bit ago, actually. When you guys came up onto the beach. I heard you guys talk about me and… well, I was a little mad so I started balling my hands into fists and then…"

"So that bubbling water was you?" asked Lainey, her eyebrows raised. "Where were you?"

"I was behind a rock, listening to you guys. Then Destiny showed up and I didn't see you guys."

"Yeah, we saw her and we swam away." Said Nicole. "What was she doing there anyways?"

I told them about Destiny and when she came to talk to me, including the part where I burnt her. Lainey tried hard to contain herself, but Nicole didn't even bother.

"You seriously did that?" gasped out Nicole in between laughs. "That is so hilarious! At least she finally got what she deserved!" We all shared the same feelings for Lainey's little sister.

Lainey started frowning though. "You know, she could have gotten suspicious." She said, concerned. "If you keep it up, she might find out our secret. And you know Destiny; she wouldn't keep a secret this big. Not in a million years."

"Don't worry!" said Nicole with a roll of her eyes. "We won't be that careless!" Lainey gave her a look that clearly stated that she didn't entirely believe her.

"Hey," I said. "Shouldn't we get back to the camp? Aren't we packing up today?"

"Oh yeah!" said Lainey.

"First one there gets to have the other's carry her bags!" grinned Nicole. We all smiled and dove underneath the water.

I brought up my strength and launched myself forward, using all the energy I could muster. I looked and saw that me, Lainey, and Nicole were pretty close. In probably just a minute, we were back around the island and speeding towards the shore. I felt nervous; Nici and Lainey were about a fraction of an inch ahead of me. When we were practically to the rock we had decided to be the finish line, I shot forward, hitting the rock at almost the same time as them, but I swore, my hand hit it just a teenie tiny bit before theirs did.

"HA! I SOO BEAT YOU!" we all said at the same time, then erupted in laughter. Nicole came up really close to my face and said in a deep, dark, scary voice, "You're one of us now." That only made us laugh harder.

And I knew she was right. I was one of them. I had finally found my place. I was a mermaid. And I wasn't alone. I had two best friends to be with me through thick and thin. And that was just fine by me.

**(A/N: How'd you like this one? Bella got over her fear of water and now they're all friends again! Yay! 3 I know this probably sounds really corny and sort of boring, but don't worry; this is only the beginning. Things are about to get more exciting for the girls, like Lainey's guy friend-or so she says- getting suspicious, a full moon sighting, and much, much more. You'll just have to stay tuned for more! The next chapter will probably be up soon. In only two days I have already gotten 3 chapters on here! Geez! They probably will stop coming as quickly soon once things get more busy. I've just been so free lately, and I've certainly taken advantage of it. Again, Read and review! Hope you enjoyed!)**


	4. Lainey Woods POV New Powers

*Lainey Woods*

I took a deep breath and slipped off my shorts, tank top and undergarments and set them off to the side. I set my iPod next to the bathtub as I turned on the ginormous faucet. I was going to admit it- I was a little nervous. I've never run into this problem before. Then again, I've never exactly been a mermaid before, have I?

I waited nervously as the tub filled to the brim. Then I quickly turned it off. Didn't want to take the chance of popping a tail before I even make it to the steaming water in front of me. I picked up a towel and set it on the side of the tub, making sure that nothing fell in. Then, I stepped into the water one foot at a time, and let myself sink.

In only a short while my legs changed into my glorious tail. I grinned. That would never get old. I grabbed my earbuds and planted them in my ear, then shuffled the songs. I sank deeper into the warm water as music filled my head.

_No light, no light in your bright blue eyes._

_I never knew daylight could be so violent._

_A revelation in the light of the day._

_You can't choose what stays and what fades away._

_And I'll do anything, to make you stay_

_No light, no light,_

_Tell me want you want me to say…_

This was one of my favorite songs. I listened until it ended, and then took out the earbuds and grabbed my 2-in-1 shampoo from Aussie. They have the best products. Even better than the bigger salon brands. Believe me, I've experimented before. I finished that and then looked around for the soap. I found it and was about to wash my _you-know-what _when I realized something- I had a tail! Yeah, I've known I've had a tail all along, but I just realized that I couldn't wash my _down there _if I had a tail instead!

Well this sucks.

In distress, also realizing I now could not shave my legs either, I went back to my iPod.

_Just Dance, gonna be okay._

_Da-da doo-doom_

_Just dance, spin that record babe._

_Da-da doo-doom Just dance…_

A few minutes later after I had calmed down, I rinsed my hair and cleaned my body. I was about to pull the plug when I noticed something. As I reached my hand down into the tub, my hand extended for the plug, the water was still. Usually the movements would create ripples in the water, but with my hand extended out, it stayed completely still, not even making little waves when I moved around. As soon as I let go, though, the water returned to normal.

I thought I'd try something. I lifted my hand out of the water and, this time above the water, made the same hand movement I had before when reaching for the plug. A small section of water rose up an inch. Shocked, I lifted my hand higher, and the small bubble of water rose too.

I let it drop by releasing my hand. Huh. Nicole and Bella will definitely want to hear about this.

I waited in my bedroom for Bella and Nici as I attached green crystal barrettes into my hair to pin my side bangs back. I took another look over my outfit- green off-the-shoulder top with white stripes on it, dark mid-thigh denim shorts, and white flip flops-and after my own approval, went downstairs.

"But _Moooom!_" whined Destiny as she followed my mom around as she was doing chores around the house, holding a folded magazine. Probably trying to convince her to buy her some new dress that was _so in,_ or a new pair of sandals that were _to die for!_ Although I had amazing sense of style, I wasn't one to really beg like that. "Mom, think about it! These sandals are to _die for!"_

I chuckled. I knew it. Destiny just gave a glare before turning her attention back to begging my mother for money. I rolled my eyes and plopped down on the couch in the other room. I grabbed the remote and flipped through some channels. Nothing good was on.

I stopped when it came to some old episode of Charmed. I got all cozy in some blankets and waited for Bella and Nici.

About half an hour and a few of Destiny's tantrums later, I heard a knock on the door. I quickly turned off the TV and ran to the door.

"Hey guys!" I said with a smile as I opened the door to let them in.

"Hey," they said at the time. After complimenting Bella on her new tank top and Nici on her new plaid over-shirt, we went up the stairs.

"Oh! Hello girls!" said my mom.

"Hi Mrs. Woods." They said at the same time.

"What are you young ladies doing here tonight?"

"They're helping me choose out my first-day-of-school outfit." I said quickly before she could ask any more questions. I grabbed their hands and urged them up the stairs to the bedroom. Even from upstairs I could hear Destiny whine, "She _always_ gets to have friends over whenever she wants!" And I could hear my mom's sigh too.

Once the door was closed, Nicole raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so what's the real reason you called us over here?"

"What, you don't believe I need help with my outfit?"

"Oh please!" scoffed Nici. "You can't fool us. We know you've had it picked out for at least 3 weeks now." Darn they know me well. "So what's the real reason we're here?"

"There's something I have to show you." I said and led them to the bathroom.

I turned on the faucet and put my hand in front of it, using the same reaching movement I had in the bath. A bubble the size of a golf ball emerged and I held it floating in the air.

"Woah." Said Nici in shock. Bella was pretty surprised too. After a few more seconds I tossed it into the sink and turned off the water.

"How did you do that?" asked Bella.

I shrugged. "How do you heat things up? I just made that motion in the bath and made a water bubble."

"That's so cool." Said Bella. "Hydrokinesis… that's way better than my power!"

"So wait," said Nici. "You think we all have powers?"

"Probably." I said. "I think each has a different hand movement or something. And we only get one power. I mean, I couldn't heat things up and I'm pretty sure Bella can't move water."

"So I'm the only one who hasn't found their power yet." said Nici sulking. I felt bad for her. I knew she really wanted to have a cool power.

"I'm, sure you'll find it." Said Bella, trying to comfort her. "It'll take time. Don't rush it." Nici sighed.

"Oh well. It'll come sooner or later. Anyone up for some ice cream?" And immediately she was in a good moon again. She bounced down the stairs towards the freezer while me and Bella rolled our eyes. We followed her down.

"Uh… guys?" we heard Nicole say in a weird squeaky voice. We hurried down there to see what the problem was.

We walked in and saw her hand reaching for the ice cream, her fingers together and her palm flat, and then the whole freezer froze even more. Everything had a thick coating of ice over it and the frozen fruit in plastic bags were rock hard.

"Oh my gosh!" yelled Nicole, jumping for joy for some reason. "I found my power!"

It took a while for Bella and me to think about that to realize it's true.

"Congratulations, Nicole!" I said with a sincere smile. Nici was beaming.

"Are we gonna have ice cream or what?" asked Bella. But after another look at the freezer burnt (or, Nici-burnt) ice cream, we quickly changed our minds and settled for some chocolate. And I can _always_ settle for chocolate.

**(A/N: This is another one of those boring short ones. Just about Nicole and Lainey finding their powers out. The next chapter will be on the first day of school, which will be in a new character's point of view. Also, the songs mentioned in here are "No lights, No lights" by Florence and the Machine and "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga. The company Aussie was also mentioned here, and just wanna say, don't own it, bla bla bla… Well next chapter will be on its way. Definetely not tonight, but soon. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks! And don't forget to give me any suggestions for the story!)**


	5. Blake Christopher POV School Days

*Blake Christopher*

I walked into school on the first day, nervous for this next year. I almost didn't pass last year, so you can bet I was nervous now. Unlike a lot of jerks I know, I actually cared about my grades. I was smart and everything, but last year felt like it had come on so quickly, I wasn't ready for it.

But I was this year. I walked into the school, a confident smile on my face. I searched around for Lainey, hoping she was here. I really missed her while she was away at her family camping trip at Mako Island. I'm so used to seeing her every day, since she lives right next down the street from me.

Now I know what this sounds like. No she is not my girlfriend. Yes, she is a girl, and yes, she is my friend. One of best friends really. We've known each other since we've been in diapers. Eventually she became friends with Bella in kindergarten, and when Nicole moved here in 2nd grade, she became friends with her, so of course I'm friends with them too. Not as much as with Lainey, though.

I waited by my locker for them to show up, checking the clock every few minutes. I didn't want to start this school year off bad. I wasn't left waiting too long though.

I saw her come through the doors, the image of a goddess… forget I said that. Or thought it. She was wearing white cowgirl boots over her tanned legs, a light blue miniskirt and a flowy white top too, with a beaded headband to match her silky straight hair. She looked beautiful… yeah forget I thought that too. Nicole was right next to her wearing her everyday soccer shorts, converse sneakers, and white tank top, and Bella was wearing a yellow camisole with denims overalls that were really short. Her pink lipstick made her look cute, like a teenage Barbie doll.

Lainey saw me and was about to wave hello before Bella went up to her and whispered something in her ear. Lainey looked sad and a little disappointed for a bit, but quickly recovered. I was usually really good at reading people, and I felt like there was something Lainey was nervous about.

"Hey Blake!" chirped Lainey as she opened up the lock to her locker, which was conveniently right next to mine, Bella's, and Nici's. "How was your summer vacation?"

"I was good." I said. "Not very interesting. How was the camping trip?"

For some reason when I mentioned that, her body tensed up and she stopped moving her lock. I noticed Bella and Nicole reacted pretty much the same. _Huh_. I wondered, _Wonder what they're freaking out about._

She still needed to answer my question. "It was… interesting." She said. I felt as if she was holding something back. I wasn't sure what but I wasn't going to tell her on it. It wasn't a big deal.

"Well that's good." I said. I heard the warning bell ring. "Oh, well, off to first period! What do you girls have?"

"Math." They all said at the same time. I looked at my schedule. "Huh me too. Aren't we lucky?"

"Yeah." I heard Lainey say, but she sighed after she did. Without another word, she and her friends walked towards the Math room. I creased my forehead. Something definitely was going on here. And I wasn't sure what.

I looked over at Lainey and her friends at the desk next to me in Science, 7th period, in worry. They've been acting weird ever since this morning. They've also been trying to ignore me, it seems like.

In math, when the teacher gave us a the assignment that we now didn't have to do because of some freak accident where the teacher's notes set on fire and were burnt to a crisp, everyone started laughing except for Lainey and Nicole, who were staring at Bella strangely, who was laughing the loudest. That was one of the first hints that something was up.

At lunch, I said hi to them, and they were about to say hi back, when my water bottle leaked on Lainey's arm. I expected her to be a little mad at me, since she hates anything being spilt on her, but instead she gave Bella and Nicole a worried glance and they all, literally, _dropped_ their plates and ran to the girl's room. I haven't seen them again till now.

They keep whispering to each other in worried tones. I wondered what was up. They seemed… different since they came back from Mako.

The class after Science, P.E., was also weird. There was an announcement about the swimming section starting next week, and the girls practically flipped out. I saw them run to our gym teacher about something. It probably was about Bella's water issues. But then why did all three of them go?

I listened to their conversation from a distance. I was right about one thing. They were telling the teacher about Bella being hydrophobic. But the other things they said was news.

Apparently, Nicole and Lainey were now allergic to chlorine. _What? Since when?_ I almost didn't believe them until they proved it. Without even touching the chlorine, their skin broke out in a red rash, just by being next to it. In the corner of my eye I saw Bella clenching her fists. She probably was nervous to be around the water. As soon as Lainey and Nicole stepped away from the water, their skin started clearing up. I creased my forehead as I tried to remember a time where their skin broke out in a rash like that before. I couldn't even remember one time. Not even poison ivy looked like that. It didn't even make sense. Lainey and Nicole have swum in chlorine before.

When the bell finally rung and class was dismissed, after a stop at our lockers, the girls and I started walking home. Lainey and I live right across the street from each other and Bella and Lainey were both only a few blocks down.

"Bye guys!" yelled Lainey as she walked towards her house door. Bella and Nici said their goodbyes and left.

I walked up to Lainey before she walked inside. "Lainey, wait."

She looked nervous. I wasn't sure why. "Lainey, are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" she asked. She is a terrible actor.

"Well, you've seemed sort of... off today. You've been kind of acting weird."

She narrowed her eyes. "So now you have a problem with how I act?"

"No, it's not that. You just seem sort of... different."

"Most people think different is good."

"I didn't mean it like that. You just…"

"Good_bye,_ Blake!" And with that she slammed the door in my face.

I stood there for a second. Someone was cranky today. Suddenly, the yard's sprinklers went on and instead of hitting the grass, unfortunately for me, the water shot all over my shirt. I ran off of her porch and to my house. Then the sprinklers turned off.

It was then I came to the conclusion that Lainey, Bella, and Nicole were up to something.

I sat in my room that night and looked at last year's yearbook. I looked at the picture of Lainey, then thought of what she looked like today. There obviously were some differences; I mean a whole summer has passed. But there were some other differences.

Something had changed in her face. In the yearbook, she looked happy and carefree, her bright smile the most beautiful on the page (again, forget I thought that). But how she looked today… she still looked happy, but she seemed like there was something bugging her. Her expression was almost… secretive.

That was it. She had a secret. I knew it then. She had a secret. And she didn't want me to know it, for some unknown reason.

I set the yearbook on my bedside and turned off my lamp, then quickly drifted to sleep…

The next morning I walked into school, hoping to get to talk to Lainey again. I didn't really get the chance to talk to her the night before. I didn't know if she was even going to give me the chance.

I saw her walk in with Bella and Nicole again wearing beaded moccasins, a long white skirt that faded to purple, and a white long sleeve shirt to match. Her braided pigtails framed her face so beautifully, I almost felt the urge to blink, as if I was looking at the sun. She did look like she had fallen from heaven…

… I'm just going to stop mentioning for you to forget what I'm thinking…

"Lainey…" I said desperately, hoping she'd stop to talk to me. She paused and seemed to be debating something in her head. Nicole saw me too and grabbed Lainey's arm and gave her a hard stare. Lainey whispered something to her and, with a nod of Nicole's head, she came over to see me.

Huh. Wonder what that was about.

"Hi." She said, her cheeks red.

"I just wanted to say sorry about being a little mean last night." I apologized. "I just…"

"It's okay." Said Lainey, instantly making me feel relieved. "But…" she trailed off.

"But… what?"

She looked me in the eyes, a sad expression on her face. "I… I can't really hang out with you anymore."

It took me a while to register what she was saying.

"So you're saying… you don't want to be my friend anymore?" My heart just about broke.

"Not exactly… I just… can't." She finally looked away.

I didn't say anything. I _couldn't_ say anything. This hurt more than it should. She was only my friend… but inside I knew that I had always wanted something more with her. I thought maybe she felt the same way. But I guess I was wrong.

We just stood there for a long time, until the warning bell rang. Then she broke the silence by mumbling, "Well, don't want to be late." She took off, hooking up with Bella and Nicole on the way, who were giving her sympathetic looks.

I didn't move. I kept waiting for Lainey to run up to me and scream "April's Fools!" Too bad it wasn't even April.

For a while I was dazed, confused. Then I was sort of mad. At Lainey, at Bella, at Nicole, at their stupid secret… I was mad at everything. I had always wanted to be more than just her friend, and now I couldn't even be that! It was so unfair! I slammed into a locker to fight off the anger, and then walked to class, cursing under my breath the whole way there.

The entire day, they were avoiding me. In the classes we had together, they sat on the opposite end of the room. In the hallways they wouldn't talk to me. I couldn't find them at lunch. And when I tried to make polite conversation at P.E., they wouldn't reply.

The silence drove me nuts. Who did they think they were, treating me like this? I may not be in their little "group" of secrets, but that doesn't mean that they have to totally ignore me. I decided to confront them after school.

When we were walking home, they stayed far ahead of me, trying not to notice me. After a bit I got tired of it, and ran up and grabbed Lainey's arm. "Lainey, stop."

She tried to pull her arm free. "Let me go, Blake!"

I pulled her a little closer. "Lainey, why don't you want to be my friend anymore?"

She avoided the question. "Blake. Let. Go!"

"Lainey answer me!" I said, a little angry. Just then Bella clenched her fists and my arm stung, like when you put your hand over hot steam. "OWCH!" I said as I let go. Lainey, Bella, and Nicole took that opportunity to get away. It would have worked, but then the neighbor's sprinkler went on, soaking all three of the girls. They screeched and, with a nervous glance at each other, ran to the dock only 10 feet away from them and dived off the edge into the water.

"Lainey!" I yelled, worried. What were they doing? Why were they jumping into the water like that? Especially Bella. She can't even swim. I ran to the dock and called out their names, waiting for them to surface. They never did. Panicking, I dropped my school bag and jumped into the water myself. There was nothing. I couldn't find them anywhere.

After diving back down three other times, I gave up. They weren't anywhere. I sulked over to my house and dried myself off.

I thought of Lainey, Bella, and Nicole's parents. They would be heartbroken… their daughter's gone forever. _And it was my fault_. Okay, so I didn't push them in there, but maybe they jumped in to get away from me.

After a while of thinking, I decided to go over to Lainey's house first to deliver the news. Hopefully they'd take it well.

I knocked on their door and waited, saying to myself _Don't cry don't cry don't cry…_

Lainey's mom answered the door. "Oh, hello Blake! Are you here to see Lainey?" Oh god, now how could I tell her? "Well, Mrs. Woods… there's … something I need to tell you…"

She interrupted me. "You're probably here for a project of some sort? Don't worry, I'll get her right away." She glanced towards the stairs and called out, "LAINEY, THERE'S SOMEONE HERE TO SEE YOU!"

To my surprise, there comes Lainey, walking down the stairs, a hairbrush in her hair. She noticed me once she got to the door. She froze. I looked at her, gaping. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining her. Then I pinched myself.

It was her. The same Lainey Woods I've always known. She wasn't dead. Not even a hair was out of place. At first the only emotion I could register was amazement and happiness.

Then came the confusion. How the heck is she in here now, not even a bit wet, wearing the same clothes she had jumping in? I decided to find out.

"Could I… talk to you Lainey?" I asked. I barely heard her mumble "Sure" as she stepped outside the door, closing it behind her as her mother went on to something else. I just stared at her for a minte.

"How did you…" I couldn't form the sentence. She sighed.

"Spit it out." She said, almost annoyed.

"How did you jump off the dock and somehow end up here?"

She hesitated and leaned against her house, nervously twirling a strand of hair. "I... don't know what you're talking about." I creased my forehead. Now she was lying to me about this too?

"This all wraps into your secret, doesn't it?" There, I finally got her attention. She straightened her posture and her eyes widened.

"How did you… I mean," she cleared her throat. "What do you mean?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Lainey, are you going to ever stop lying to me?" She seemed to stare at me forever before replying, "I'm sorry Blake. I can't talk to you. Or be with you." I saw her eyes flicker to Bella and Nicole's houses. "Bye…"

I grabbed her arm before she could open her door. "It's them, isn't it?" I asked, that anger brewing up in me again. "Bella and Nici. They're making you do this, aren't they?"

"No!" she said. "I mean, not really…"

"I knew it!"

"Look Blake!" she said angrily as she thrust her arm out of my grasp. "I can't be with you as a friend, okay? It's not because Nici and Bella told me that or anything, I just can't! Accept the fact." She opened the door and slammed it in my face. Twice in only two horrendous days.

I walked off of the doorstep, confused. I played back the first two days of school in my head and made a mental list of the things that have been sort of weird.

1. Lainey hesitating to talk to me at the beginning of school.

2. Freaking out about me mentioning Mako Island.

3. Acting weird to Bella about the burnt assignment notes fiasco.

4. Running to the ladies room when I spilt water and not showing up again until 7th period.

5. Whispering to each other all the time. (I wasn't sure if this qualifies as something weird or just something girls do)

8. Lainey and Nicole claiming they were allergic to chlorine and the weird rash happened.

9. Lainey not telling me what's wrong with her, when we usually tell each other everything.

10. Lainey's sprinkler going off and spraying me.

11. Lainey telling me we can't be friends anymore. (It was hard to think about this one)

12. Ignoring me all day.

13. My arm mysteriously burning.

14. Nicole, Lainey and Bella all jumping into the ocean, especially since they were fully clothed and Bella can't swim.

15. Finding them alive.

I went over the list a few times in my head and realized a few things.

First, I had looked at the burn on my arm for a while, and realized something. It looked _exactly_ like an amped up version of the rash Lainey and Nicole got from the chlorine. I went back to the scenes of the two incidents and realized something. Bella was clenching her fists both times. Now I don't believe in magic or anything, but maybe she had some sort of gas she used when she clenched her fists to get them out of swimming and burn my arm? The thing is, why would they want to get out of the swimming section of P.E.?

And this ties into my second discovery. The girls are avoiding water. I don't know why, though. I've just noticed this little pattern. When I spilt my water bottle, they ran away. When they were told they were going to be swimming, they all freaked out. When the sprinklers went off, they all ran into the ocean. And this is the most confusing part (as if it wasn't confusing enough). Why would they go through all of this trouble to stay away from water if they just jumped right into the ocean?

There I decided that I would do everything I could to figure out their secret, which I now knew has something to do with water, so there could be nothing they would have to hide from me.

**(A/N: Hope you liked this chapter! I wanted to thank Anonymous for writing a review on chapter 1. Even if you don't like my story, it's nice to hear what you think. Well this one was especially long in Blake's POV. Do you like all of the happenings? It's all leading up to bigger problems. The next chapter concerns the girls first full moon, since it's been a month since they went camping at Mako. What will happen next?... Again, I hoped you like it and review! Even If there are things you don't like, still review! In fact, it would be better if you could give me some constructive criticism. Well thanks and hope you enjoyed!)**


	6. Nicole Paige POV The Blake Dilemma

*Nicole Paige*

Lainey, Bella and I were sitting in my room, discussing the Blake situation. Or rather, Bella and I were discussing the Blake situation. Lainey was just sitting on my bed, looking into space.

"Lainey?" I asked, trying to get her attention. "Lainey…" I put my hand on her shoulder. "Lainey, you did what you had to do." Nothing. No reply. I sighed and gave up. She hasn't talked to us ever since a few days ago, when she had to tell Blake they couldn't be friends. I know it was especially hard for her since both Bella and I knew that she had always liked him more than just a friend. Me and Bella also knew that Blake liked her the same way. It's so ironic how everyone knew they liked each other except for themselves. Now she couldn't even be friends with him, and I knew it was hard. But it had to be done. He was just too suspicious of us.

Out of all of us, I think Lainey had to make the most sacrifices. She had to quit surfing lessons, act sick on her family's annual vacation to the beach resort in California, and the biggest one… giving up Blake. Sure, me and Bella had to give up on some things, but I think I had it the easiest. I always kept to myself unless I was with Bella and Lainey, so I didn't have some beach club or something I had to quit.

Even so, I wish Lainey would at least _try_ to talk so we could help her out. Just a simple "Mhmm" would be better than this silence. Bella and I were getting bored out of our minds. Seriously, for the past, like, three hours, I've just been freezing things and Bella heating them back up.

I was actually proud of my progress with my powers. We planned the whole "chlorine allergy" out pretty good. Bella heated our skin to make the rash, and I cooled it to make it seem the rash was fading away. Lainey and I got pretty mad at Bella for burning the teacher's notes in math, but whatever. Because of that, we didn't have to do math homework. So yippee.

After another hour of silence, Bella spoke up. "How about we go swimming? That'll cheer you up." Instantly, a smile crept onto my lips. Swimming was what made all of this mermaid nonsense worth it. It was a different world out there, among the coral reefs and sea animals that were always happy to be around you.

"That sounds like a great idea" I said, and turned to Lainey to see what she would say. No response. Of course. I sighed as Bella and I left her room so she could be by herself. "Bye Lainey." I said. She didn't even look my way.

In only a few minutes we were on the little, secluded beach we had found a while ago. No one came here. Or so we thought.

We were about to dive in when suddenly _him_ of all people showed up. Blake.

"Hey!" he shouted as he ran towards us. Bella and I just stood there, not looking at him. We were entitled to the same ignoring act as Lainey. "Hey!" Blake said again. "What are you guys doing here?" We didn't answer. Blake grabbed Bella's arm. Owch. Mistake.

His hand started burning where he grabbed her arm. "Ow!" he said as he pulled it away. Then he grinned for a moment. He must be going crazy or something. "I knew it." I heard him mumble under his breath.

Yep. He definitely was going crazy.

He turned towards us again. "Look, we need to talk."

I was getting a little pissed off at him, so I just had to say something. "Not interested."

"Why are you guys making Lainey ignore me?" He looked like he was about to blow up or something. I was a little shocked though. Did he think we were forcing Lainey not to talk to him? We weren't. Er, not exactly…

"Why would you think that?" Bella said, crossing her arms.

"I think it all has something to do with that secret of yours." He said, angry. I didn't respond. Neither did Bella. Did he know our secret? "And because of the secret, you guys are making Lainey ignore me!" He really was all fired up.

"We don't know what you're talking about." I said, keeping my cool.

"Where is Lainey anyways?" He asked.

"Why do you care?" said Bella." It's not like she's your girlfriend or anything." Oops. Wrong thing to say.

Blake's face got really red and grabbed a water bottle he had next to him and shot it all over Bella. She gasped and, with a nervous look at me I understood all too well, we both ran right into the surf, making sure we were underneath the surface enough so that he couldn't see us.

I didn't know how Blake reacted to us jumping into the water like that, but I know he must be getting suspicious by now. I mean, this is the second time we've done this, and the first time we did didn't end up well. Lainey told us about that little fiasco Blake and her had at her house before she went mute on us.

But as I looked around at the sandy wonderland, my worries about Blake and Lainey drifted away. It always seemed as if there wasn't anything important enough to worry about here, in this magical underwater world.

Bella and I swam through coral reefs and pointed out cool looking fish and shells, and tried cool new swimming tricks. Bella had perfected the little log roll she did in the water, and her somersault. The trick I was trying was much more thrilling, though. We swam to the other side of Mako where nobody could see us and I propelled myself into the air with my tail, doing a little flip and diving back under, just like a dolphin would. It was so much fun. I could easily cover fifteen feet, with my powerful tail. Bella tried a few times, but gave up when she ended up landing in a belly flop.

After a while if that, we swam into the moon pool (that's what we've come to call it) for a little break, even though we weren't even a bit tired. Swimming was probably one of the easiest things I had ever done in my life. It seems as if I was meant to be a mermaid.

When we surfaced in the pool, I reached to the side and turned on a battery-powered cd player we had set in the pool. It was almost like a joke to us.

_We're searching our way through deep blue oceans_

_We're making our way with our minds in motion_

_We gonna be where we all belong, yeah_

_And every time I feel this way_

_Our secret place will save the day_

_Where we can always, be freeeee…_

We laughed as we listened. This song fit so perfectly. This was where we belonged.

"Hey," said Bella as she turned down the music, which was now _Ordinary Girl_ playing. **(A/N: That's the theme song to H2O)** "I'm worried about Lainey."

She didn't even need to say it. I was too. "Yeah, me too." I said with a sigh. "She won't even talk to us." We both looked a little flustered. We didn't know what to do.

I turned off the player and turned to Bella. "Bet you 5 dollars I can beat you back to the beach!" I told her. She grinned at me. "You're on!"

We dove back under and sped towards the beach in record time. I was just making an estimate, but I was guessing we could swim at least 600 kilometers per hour, which meant 10 km a minute. The more we swam, the faster we got. The first time I had swum, I'm guessing I could go only half the speed.

We raced back to the beach, both determined to get there first. But we both touched it so close to each other, it was hard to tell. I was sure though that I had gotten it a fraction of an inch before Bella.

We were both shouting at each other about how we had beat the other, and then we started laughing. We had forgotten one little thing though…

"What are you girls doing?" asked Blake from a good 15 feet away. I almost had a heart attack before I realized he couldn't see our tails since we were up against a giant rock. He started walking closer though. "What are you guys screaming about?"

I swore under my breath. I was sure he had left by now. How long had we been in the water? A good two hours at least. I had no idea what he'd be doing here. I decided to ask. "What are you doing here Blake?"

"I was waiting for you girls to come back." He said with a grin. Drat. He knew. He knew our secret had something to do with water. That must have been why he splashed water all over Bella.

I looked at Bella and saw her worried face. She must have made the same connections as I did. I looked back at Blake, who was walking closer. "Um, what are you girls doing there anyways?" He was getting too close. If he got any more closer he'd see our scaly tops and tails. I had to stop him.

"We're naked Blake." I said, an eyebrow raised. He instantly backed away a good few feet. Phew. That was close.

"Oh…" he said, flustered. "I'll just… ummm… go then…" He picked up his water bottle and left.

Once we were sure he was gone, we erupted in laughter and gave each other a high five.

"Good one!" said Bella, laughing her head off. "Let's go." She said when she finally calmed down. I nodded my head as she dried herself off with her power, then continued to dry me off. As we got up, I wondered what Lainey was doing right now…

**(A/N: I know, I know, I told you this was going to be about the full moon, and it was going to be, but eventually I just decided to have this little chapter first. I think the **_**next**_** chapter, in Lainey's POV again, is going to be mostly about how she feels, but in the end she sees the moon. Then it will be probably in Bella's POV, and that one will be short. It's just her figuring out Lainey's moonstruck, and then Nicole gets moonstruck, then she does herself. Then it will be in Blake's POV again. So now you sort of know what to expect. Also, I mentioned **_**Ordinary Girl **_**and**_** Where We Belong**_**, which both are songs by Kate Alexa. Review and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed! I'm hoping for the next few chapters about the full moon experience to come out soon. Bye bye!)**


	7. Lainey Woods POV Full Moon Part 1

*Lainey Woods*

I missed him. I missed Blake. I wanted to talk to someone about it, but I couldn't. I couldn't even talk to Bella and Nicole. I knew if I opened my mouth and started talking, I'd start crying. And I can't cry. I just can't.

I've spent most of my time in my room, only going somewhere to take a bath, go to school, brush my teeth, put on clothes, eat, or go to the bathroom. I didn't even pay attention to my outfits. They were all picked out for the first month of school anyways, so I just put it on and get through the day at school. I haven't even talked. My voice will probably sound like a frog's if I do ever talk again from misusage.

Bella and Nicole have tried to come over and help me, but I can't talk to them. They went swimming and invited me, but I didn't want to go anywhere. Swimming would be good for me right now though.

Since I've had all of this time to myself, I've been practicing my powers a lot when nobody was looking. I've been trying this new thing where I control a thin coil of water, then wrap it around something. When I move the water, I try to make it move the object with it. It's been working in some cases, but some have resulted in water on the floor that I quickly moved back into a glass again.

I've also been looking up thing about mermaids on my bedazzled laptop. So far, the only thing I've found and been able to cross-reference was the fact that mermaids shouldn't look at a full moon. I knew it was a full moon the night I transformed but other than that, I didn't see any significance to it. Some cases stated that the mermaid who sees the full moon will go crazy, but I don't really know what that entitles.

After a long time of waiting for Bella and Nicole, I decided I'd try to talk to them.

I walked out of the house without even saying where I was going and walked towards our little, secluded beach. On the way there, I bumped into someone. I didn't see their face before I fell to the ground, scraping my hand in the process. "Ow…" I whispered, surprising myself that I could say anything at all.

"Lainey?" I heard a shocked voice say from above me. I looked up. It was Blake. Of all the people in this world.

I tried to stand up. "Blake?" I said in a hoarse whisper. "What are you…"

And then suddenly he gave me a hug. Well that was akward.

"Lainey!" He was so darn happy. I realized I was too. I actually hugged him back, although I didn't know why he was hugging me.

"Why are you hugging me?" I asked, my voice a little louder. He pulled away.

"Sorry," he said bashfully. "I just… really missed you. I haven't been able to see you outside of school. You've kind of been ignoring me." He looked really sad, but happy that he could now see me. As he hugged me again, I felt little butterflies in my stomach.

Then I remembered what I came out for. "Oh, sorry Blake. I have to go."

His face fell. "Why?"

"I need to go find Nicole and Bella…" I trailed off, leaving out the part where I'm going to go swimming probably to find them.

"Oh, well, they're at that little beach we used to go to when we were little. They dove in and came back up two hours later."

Panic seized me. "Wait, you saw them come out of the water?"

"Yeah. They were behind some rocks and were talking for a while and when I came closer, Nicole claimed they were naked so I left." I almost snorted at that excuse, but contained myself.

"Well, bye Blake." I said, a smile on my face. I was about to leave when he grabbed my arm. "Wait, Lainey." I waited.

"Will I see you again? Like this?" He asked, obviously dreading the answer. I stared into his lovely blue eyes that won't ever see me as more than a friend, and made my decision. I would see him again. No matter what Nicole and Bella thought. This friendship is worth risking the secret.

"Definitely." I said as his whole face lift up. Mine was too. "Bye." I said.

"Bye!" He walked away gleefully.

By the time I got to the beach, I had recovered from my Blake-less depression totally.

I dove into the surf, splashing as I made my way to the sandy bottom as I grew my tail. My head bobbed above the surface as I started giggling. Filled with happiness, with one quick propel, I sped off towards Mako, leaving a huge wake in the water.

Too bad that I didn't know that Blake had went over to the beach to ask me something right then. And had paused when he saw me dive into the waves. And when he did, the next thing he saw was a ginormous wake towards Mako.

I made it to Mako in record time. I swam up through the small canal into the pool and saw that Bella and Nicole were back in there, playing some music on the CD player we had left there. I recognized the tune as soon as I came in.

_Baby there's a shark in the water, water._

_There's something underneath my bed,_

_Oh please believe I said._

_Baby there's a shark in the water, water._

_I caught them barking at the moon,_

_Better be soon._

I noticed they were still bobbing their heads to it and were laughing. They hadn't even noticed I had swum in.

"Hey guys." They froze and slowly turned towards me. It was funny. We were all just floating there as the song kept on playing.

_Yes that's what I'm bringing._

_Some tricks up my sleeve,_

_For noticing me…_

"Lainey?" asked Bella, shocked. "You're… talking!"

"Yeah! I am!" I said gleefully. I must have looked too happy or something, because Nicole narrowed her eyes.

"So what put you in such a good mood all of a sudden?" she asked, suspicious.

"Come on, Nici!" said Bella as she rolled her eyes and gave me a quick side hug. "Just be happy she's not a mute anymore!"

"She hasn't answered my question."

There was an air of guilt around me and I knew it. I dropped my gaze. "I… saw Blake on the way here."

"I knew it!" said Nicole, showing disappointment.

"Lainey!" said Bella surprised. I didn't look at them. Tears started to well up in my eyes.

"I'm sorry." I choked out. "But i… I miss him. More than I should." There was no stopping the tears now. They came out like a waterfall as Bella let me use her shoulder to cry on. Even Nicole looked sorry.

"I'm sorry, Lainey." Said Nicole. "We know how hard this is. It's just… so much's at stake."

"I know." I said. I wiped my eyes and backed away from Bella. "I kinda came here to talk to you guys."

"About what?"

I told them about my discoveries about the full moon. Bella looked worried and Nicole just rolled her eyes.

"Pu-lease!" she said in a mocking tone. "A moon is a moon! Nothing about the way the sun covers it up changes anything!"

"Well it was a full moon when we transformed." Objected Bella. "And that was the only time the pool bubbled up when the moon was overhead. We've been on midnight swims here before, and it only bubbled that one time."

"It could be a coincidence." Said Nicole. But I doubted it.

"Well, just to be safe, we'd better just stay inside and not look at reflections of the moon or out windows. Sleepover at my place?" I asked.

"Sure!" they said and then dried off so they could use their phones to call their parents (they had their phones on them when they transformed). Their parents said yes and then we raced back to the beach. I felt like taking it easy so they beat me by a lot. We were all laughing as we walked towards my house.

We had no idea how much of a mess that night would be.

"Popcorn?"

"Check."

"Movies?"

"Check."

"Snacks?"

"Check."

"Windows covered?"

"Check."

"Towels?"

"Check."

"Hot guys?"

I rolled my eyes and punched Nicole in the arm. "Haha, very funny." We were setting up everything for the sleepover. We just needed one thing…

"Bella!" I shouted, looking around for her. I was nervous. The moon would be up soon, and if the things I read on there were true… I shuddered. I didn't even _want_ to know what would happen.

"I'm here!" said Bella as she came in through the door with soda pop and some donuts. Yipee! Junk food!

"Let the festivities begin!" shouted Nicole as she dug into a chocolate-and-sprinkle covered donut. I giggled. I stopped. I had forgotten something very crucial…

"My chocolate!" I said in horror. I needed my Skinny Cow Candies! I ran into the kitchen to grab some. I opened the cupboard and searched until I found my prize. I scooped up the little bag and was about to walk back into the living room when I noticed that the blanket we put over the window was falling off. I set down my bag of deliciousness and walked over to the window to fix it.

I didn't even get that far. The light from the moon reflected off into a glass of water set on the counter. My eyes widened. I felt… funny… like I was on Novocain at the dentists. I felt like I was floating on a cotton candy cloud. Eager for more of it, I ripped the blanket off of the window and stared at the moon in awe. So… mesmerizing…

Suddenly, I felt another thing. This time it was a _pull_… towards Mako Island.

Once I realized this, the need to go there became unbearable. Why was I still here? I need to go there NOW! I should already be there! I started hyperventilating. I looked around the room. Everything seemed blurry, but I made out two figures in a different room.

They MUST be doing this! They must be the ones not letting me leave! They want to keep me trapped here, with these… legs! I HATED them! I WANTED MY TAIL!

It wasn't a want. It was a _need._ I was one hundred percent positive that I would die if I did not get to Mako… and these girls were keeping me from going there! They were out to kill me!

_I need to be fast,_ I told myself as I slipped towards the door, trying not to get their attention. I managed to get through the door without them hearing. I grinned once I was out. They couldn't keep me in anymore! I looked up and saw the moon, urging me towards Mako.

"I'm coming!" I shouted to the moon. I was running towards the beach when I stopped. I felt as if I needed to show someone the beauty of Mako. Not those girls… they want to destroy me! I needed someone though…

Blake.

That was the last thing I remembered before it all went black.

**(A/N: So, here's the next chapter! Sorry the updates are coming slower. I had already written some of the first few chapters so I was able to get those up quicker. They will probably come slower now. Also, _Shark in the Water_ by V.V. Brown was mentioned. Well, hoped you liked it and the next short chapter will be coming soon!)**


	8. Bella Edwards POV Full Moon Part 2

*Bella Edwards*

"Lainey?" I called out. I know I had just chewed her out for getting worried about me, but I was getting worried. The last time I saw her was when she left to go get probably some chocolate from the kitchen.

"Nicole, I'm worried about Lainey." I said, but she just rolled her eyes.

"Don't get all worked up, Bells. I'm sure she's just going to the bathroom or something." Oh. Right. That made sense. Now I felt silly.

Suddenly, though, I remembered a while ago when we were hanging up the towels over the kitchen windows. I was pretty bad at doing it, and Nici and Lainey kept making fun of me, so I eventually gave up on the towel. Maybe Lainey had seen the moon through the…

"Nicole!" I shouted. "I think Lainey's in trouble!" That got her attention. We both got up and ran to the kitchen. I realized there was a glow on the wall before you turned to the kitchen, so I stopped. Nicole wasn't that fortunate.

"Nicole…" Too late. She was standing right where you would turn into the kitchen, staring at the window. Her mouth was wide open and smiling. She let out a little giggle. She then turned to me.

"Bella, Mako is calling." She said with a giggle as she grabbed both of my arms and looked me straight in the eyes. "We must go there NOW!"

I groaned. Great. I have a moonstruck mermaid on my hands. "Nicole, how about we stay here instead? Watch a movie, relax…"

"No!" she said as she tightened her grip around my arms. She giggled again. "We need to go there."

"Well I'm not going!" I said as I tried to pull away from her. I ripped my arms out of her grasp and ran to the living room.

"Bella!" giggled Nicole. "Let's go play at Mako Island!" This was like some horror movie!

"Leave me alone!" I shrieked, trying to find somewhere to hide. I looked and saw a closet. There! I opened it up and then shut it behind me. I could hear Nici's footsteps get closer and closer, until they stopped. I didn't hear anything. I wasn't even breathing.

"You can't hide." I heard her whisper, very close to me. She ripped open the closet doors and grabbed me. I was screaming my head off. Good thing Lainey's sister was at a sleepover and her parents out on a date.

"Let me go!" I shouted. Nicole just giggled.

"You MUST see the moon!" She giggled. "It wants to play with us at Mako!" Then she ripped open the blinds right in front of me. I tried to look away, but didn't in time.

I suddenly was _glad_ I was looking at the moon. I bathed me in its shiny glory. I grinned. Nici was right. It _was_ calling. To Mako Island. I knew it then. We _must _get there. This was a matter of life and death.

I turned towards Nicole and giggled, a numb sensation filling me. "To Mako?" I asked her in a squeaky, kiddish voice.

She nodded enthusiastically, her face looking like a puppy's. We turned towards the moon one last time before letting out a shrieking giggle and running out the door towards Mako.

**(A/N: Like I said, this was going to be a very short one. The shortest one I've done. The next chapter will be the third Full Moon part. Might be the last one, but there also might be another short one with the moon in it afterwards. I'm not sure yet. Anyways, I'm not sure if I have a lot of ideas for this, I mean I have some, but I want to keep this going on for a while so new ideas would be appreciated! Thank for reading and I hope you enjoyed!)**


	9. Blake Christopher POV Full Moon Part 3

*Blake Christopher*

_MEANWHILE…_

_Knock knock! _was the loud sound I heard from the floor below me. I groaned and turned over in my sleep, sure that I had imagined it. But the knocking got louder. And louder. Suddenly, someone was yelling out my name. "BLAKE! BLAKE! BLAKE!"

I sat up in a blink. I recognized that voice. It was…

"Lainey!" I called out as I ran downstairs and opened the door. She could be in trouble…

She certainly didn't look like she was in trouble. In fact, she looked sort of… happy. She looked beautiful, too. With the moonlight casting shadows on her silky straight hair, her silk pajamas not looking any less glamorous than her outfits she wears to school…

Then I looked beyond her normal features and noticed something odd. Her eyes have always been blue, but now they looked icy blue. It was almost scary. There also was this weird haze over them. I wasn't sure what it was, but something about it made me seem like I was pudding. I felt weird and numb for a second, until I looked away. Then I was fine. I must be tired. I must have been imagining it.

She giggled and smiled her huge bright smile right at me. She grabbed my hands and I blushed. She didn't seem to notice the difference. "Blake," she said in an odd, slightly shrill and excited voice. "We need to go to Mako!"

I looked at her confused. "Mako Island?"

"Yes!" she said, getting a little uncomfortably close to my face. I didn't back away though. Her eyes seemed to make me immobilized… "We need to go to Mako Island, Blake. The two of us."

"Uh-huh…" I said, not even noticing that she was one inch away from my face. The haze swirled over her eyes, and I felt compelled to do whatever she wanted. "Of course." I said. Of course I would take her to Mako! I would do anything. "I'll go get my boat…" I started to pull away, against what I wanted to do. I wanted to be close to Lainey, and stare into her eyes for eternity.

But I must do her will. I started to walk away. As soon as I wasn't seeing her eyes anymore, I realized I had no idea why she would want to go to Mako.

"No, Blake!" she said with a giggle as she grabbed my arm. "No boats! Boats are too slow!"

I looked at her, confused for a second. What would we do to get there? Fly?

As if she was answering the question I had thought, she said, "We must _swim_ to Mako, Blake! If we swim, we'll make it there quicker!" She looked at the sky. "And then the moon won't be so impatient!" She looked back at me. "Blake, come on! We must go there NOW!"

Alright, this girl was really confusing me! She wasn't even acting like herself, her eyes are all weird, and she's mentioning something about the moon being impatient and _swimming_ to Mako? I mean, I did see her get in the water the other day and then there was this huge wake towards Mako Island, but I was sure I had imagined it…

I knew what was going on. "I'm dreaming!" I said with a laugh. Of course! That made _much _more sense! Lainey would never act like this in real life!

Lainey frowned. "No, Blake!" she said with anger as she tightened her grasp on my arms. "You are NOT dreaming! We need to go to Mako! NOW!" I was a little scared of her. I was then sure I wasn't dreaming. She was holding my arms really tight, and I was sure it wouldn't hurt this much in a dream…

I heard another familiar giggle behind me. I turned to see Nicole and Bella standing behind me in their pjs. Their eyes looked the same as Lainey's.

"Lainey!" said Bella. "Is he coming to Mako with us?" Now they were talking about Mako too? Did I miss something here? Was there some party at Mako Island tonight?

Lainey gave them a death stare. "Are you here to keep me from my Mako?" she asked angrily. "Because you CAN'T!"

Alright, I officially had no idea what was going on.

Nicole frowned and cocked her head. "No Lainey! We ALL want to go to Mako Island! We want to play with the moon!" She and Bella giggled, and I saw Lainey smile.

"Okay then!" said Lainey in a gleeful voice as she let go of my arm. "Let's all go to Mako Island!" They all shouted "Yay!" like 5 year olds and then ran towards the beach. Wondering what they were doing, I ran to the shore and watched them jump into the surf. Before I could even blink, there were three giant wakes in the direction of Mako Island.

My eyes widened. That wake was the same as the one I saw when Lainey jumped into the waves earlier. In now knew I hadn't imagined it. Somehow, this all was a part of their secret.

I was pretty tired, so I walked back into my house. On the carpet near the doorstep, though, there was this white shimmery powder. I creased my forehead and pinched a little bit of it. I looked at it and felt a hint of the feeling I had when I looked into Lainey's eyes. I ran outside and found more of the weird shimmery dust. I brought it into the house and wrapped it into a napkin and set it by my bedside. Then I turned off the lights and slept. The whole night, I dreamt of Lainey's eyes.

**(A/N: Hmmm… what is all of the shimmering dust about? :-O Well you might find out in the next chapter! Or, ya know, you won't. ;-) Anyways, hope you liked it and don't forget to review and tell me your ideas! I'm one of those people who like freak out when they get reviews. Literally.)**


	10. Bella Edwards POV Aftermath

*Bella Edwards*

I woke up with a throbbing headache. I looked around. I didn't know where I was. After a while, I realized I was in Lainey's living room. I squinted my eyes as I tried to remember what happened the night before. Even with all of my efforts, I only could remember coming over for a sleepover here. Everything else…

"Ow" I whispered as I went to the kitchen to grab a bag of ice for my pounding headache. When I got it, I turned and saw a towel tossed on the floor right underneath a window. That brought back a memory…

I dropped the ice bag. I remembered then… Lainey had disappeared… Nicole went moonstruck… and then everything went black…

I ran into the living room, ignoring the blinding headache, and shook Nicole and Lainey. "Guys! Wake up!"

"Hmm?" asked Nicole as she faintly opened her eyes. Lainey sat up and rubbed her head. Seems as if I wasn't the only one with a headache. "Wha-what happened?" mumbled Lainey.

"I have no idea." I admitted. "All I remember is you going to go get some chocolate and then you were gone. I thought you had seen the moon and when we came to look for you, Nicole saw the moon and…" I suddenly burst out laughing. I remembered more of what happened before I saw the moon now, and it struck me as to how funny it was.

"What?" asked Nicole, concerned. She seemed to be more awake. "What did I do?"

I just giggled and showed my impersonation of her. "Come on, Bella! Let's go play with the moon!" I was laughing my head off as Nicole groaned and stuffed her face into a pillow. Lainey was giggling too.

"You know, you probably did the same thing when you were moonstruck." Pointed out Lainey to help out Nicole's ego.

"Well no one was conscious to make fun of _her_ though!" she groaned.

"Hey, don't worry Nicole! We can always play at Mako to cheer you up!" I was cracking up. Lainey rolled her eyes and Nicole shrieked into her pillow a few times.

"I wonder what we did last night." Pondered Lainey out loud. "I hope no one else saw us act all weird. I would probably _die_ of embarrassment."

"Well since, according to my memory, we were talking about Mako Island, I think we all probably headed out there. I don't think we would have made any stops. Right?"

"Right," said Lainey. She picked something up off of the ground. "Hey, what is this stuff?"

I didn't know. I picked some up and looked at it. It was this weird white-silvery shimmer powder. I wondered what it was, just like Lainey. Even Nicole seemed interested in it since she got up from her pillow and checked some out. I put some in my hand and brought it by a window to see it in the sunlight. But as soon as a ray of sun touched it, the powder changed into some sort of rock. "Uh… guys?" I called them over to check out the rock. They looked at it for a minute.

"This looks familiar…" said Lainey. "I'm not sure where it came from. But I'm pretty positive I've seen it before."

"Weird… said Nicole as she set some down on the counter next to the fridge. Suddenly, a magnet really close to it started moving in the direction of the rock, eventually sticking to it. We all looked at one another and then grabbed the rock.

"So it's magnetic…" I said to myself. "Weird."

Lainey thought for a minute and then snapped her fingers. "That's it! She grabbed the crumbled up pieces of rock. "It's moon rock!"

"What?" asked Nicole.

"It comes from the moon!" she said with enthusiasm. "The white powder must be what affects us on a full moon! Maybe when we see the moon, the powder falls on us. When the powder meets daylight though…"

"It turns back into moon rock!" I said, amazed. I looked at it. "We should keep some of this. Maybe we could learn more if we study it or something." I found a plastic bag and filled it with all of the silver powder we could find. This was partly to clean up and partly to get samples.

A few hours later, we were sitting on the beach. We were deciding whether to go swimming or to go shopping.

"Shopping." said Lainey. Nicole rolled her eyes.

"Swimming!" she insisted. "I want a rush, not a wait in line at a counter!"

"Well you desperately need some new material." said Lainey, indicating towards Nici's everyday clothes, soccer shorts and some sort of t-shirt. Today it was Abercrombie.

"Hey!" shouted Nicole. "Maybe it would do you some good! You know, we could race and once I beat you, maybe you'd feel a little bruise on your ego and forget about shopping!"

"How about we do _both?"_ I suggested, which was odd. Before we became mermaids, Nicole and I were always the ones getting into fights. They cocked their heads and thought about that one. Then they turned towards each other and said "Sure" at the same time. I grinned as we got up to go to shopping at our favorite stores.

I felt a weird feeling though, as we left the beach. It was like someone was watching me. I turned to my left, but only saw sand. I shrugged it off and continued.

If only I had looked to my right, I would have seen Blake standing there, listening to our whole conversation.

Once we dropped off our outfits at our house and all got on the new matching bikinis we bought, we headed for the beach.

When we got there, we were about to jump in when I heard footsteps behind us.

"Hey." We froze. We knew that voice all too well. We turned to see Blake standing there. I mentally thanked God for having him come right before we jumped into the waves.

"Hi Blake," said Lainey as she blushed. I rolled my eyes. I mean, what does she see in him?

"Well you guys are acting different." He said with raised eyebrows as he leaned against a tall rock on the sandy beach.

We all looked at each other with confused faces. We were acting different? I wasn't sure what he meant by that. "What do you mean?" asked Nicole.

"Well, you all acted pretty strange last night. Especially you, Lainey." He said as he pointed at her. She paled. I think we all got what he was talking about. "Yeah, you guys kept talking about going to Mako and dancing with the moon or something." That confirmed our suspicions. Someone had gone to see Blake and the rest probably followed. _And I was pretty sure I knew who did_, I thought as I turned towards Lainey. She must have come to the conclusion that she was the one who went to see Blake and blushed even more than before.

"I-I think you were dre-dreaming," Lainey stuttered nervously. I saw Nicole roll her eyes, and I repeated the action. Lainey was doing a great job at convincing him (please say you got the sarcasm there).

He laughed and showed us his arm. "You call this a dream?" he asked. We looked at it and saw bruise marks along his arm, as if someone had grabbed his arms really tight.

Lainey gasped. "We did this to you?" she asked him in horror.

"No," he said. "You did."

She looked at him blankly, not entirely believing what she was hearing. _Why would Lainey ever hurt him?_ I thought.

As if to answer my question, Blake looked at her with raised eyebrows and explained. "You squeezed my arms when I didn't go to Mako Island right away with you." He looked at her worriedly. "You really don't remember?"

She blushed and muttered. "N-No…"

This time Blake directed his question towards all of us. "Why don't you guys just tell me your secret? I'm already really close to finding it out." We all tensed up. "I've been keeping track of all the suspicious things that occur with you guys, and last night basically gave me the excuse to believe that the secret has something to do with there." He said as he pointed towards Mako Island. When we didn't respond, he turned directly towards Lainey. "Lainey," he said pleadingly. "We've been friends since we were in diapers. Why can't you just tell me?"

Lainey was coming _this_ close to cracking, I could tell.

"Don't say it, Lainey," said Nicole. "We can't risk it." Lainey turned towards us for one moment, but that was all Blake needed. He grabbed a water bottle he must have been hiding somewhere and squirted her back with it. We all gasped and everything seemed to be in slow motion as Lainey ran to the shore and jumped in, us following after. We heard a splash behind us.

Blake…

**(A/N: Oooh… cliffhanger! LOL, not really! We all know what's going to happen. I realized that my chapters have been getting shorter and shorter. Drat. Well, I'll try to keep them longer. But I've also been trying to get them on here fast, so whatever. ;-) Well, hoped you enjoyed the little twist about the moon dust, which is what they start calling it, and don't forget to review and tell me your thoughts! TTYL!)**


	11. Nicole Paige POV Totally Screwed

*Nicole Paige*

We were so screwed.

I knew the second, no, _millisecond_ that we hit the water and I heard Blake come in after us. We didn't have enough time to speed away…

We all turned to him, guilty looks on our faces. He looked like a fish, his eyes looking as if they were going to pop out of his head. He shrieked, and bubbles of air came out of his throat. He realized he needed air so he swam to the surface. We followed.

Once he was out of the water, he ran far away from us onto the beach, where we couldn't reach him. "Get away from me!" he shouted, looking scared. I just snorted as Bella and Lainey looked worried when we surfaced and were lying there in our tails.

"Really?" I asked him sarcastically as I rolled my eyes. "You beg us to tell you our secret and _this_ is how you react? Gosh, well now you know why we didn't tell! You never disappoint, Blake." I flopped my tail around cuz I could tell it kinda creeped him out. I held back a giggle.

"Well, the last thing on my mind was that you guys were _mermaids!_" He said, sort of angry. In the corner of my eye I saw Lainey. She looked like she was about to cry. I felt bad for her. She had told us she had dreams about this happening before, and they were always nightmares. I could see now why. She looked as if she was about to break in half.

"Well, sorry if we disappointed you!" spat out Lainey in an angry tone I've never heard her use. "I'm leaving guys. Have fun dealing with that _thing_." She indicated towards Blake before diving into the water and speeding towards the moon pool.

I turned back to Blake and saw he was pale.

"How dare you?" screeched Bella as she climbed onto shore and dried herself off. I saw Blake was about to ask how she was doing it before she interrupted him "You bastard! Did you even _realize_ how much she liked you?" She was fully dried off now and was marching up to him, her hands on her hips. I sat back to watch the fireworks.

"She… liked me… like that?" asked Blake in awe. "I never knew…"

"Would it even had made a difference?" asked Bella angrily. "Because you were only concerned about finding out our stupid secret, and this is how you react once you did find out? You are unbelievable!" I let out a low whistle under my breath.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" said Blake, scared. I would be scared too. Bella was on a rampage and I felt sorry for any bloke who would try to stop her.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" screeched Bella. "Lainey's going to be a wreck for _weeks_ now, because of you!" He was finally silent.

"I really am sorry." He said shakily. "I didn't mean to hurt her…" Even Bella calmed down a little as she saw how heartbroken his face was. "Do you think… do you think I could talk to her?" Bell and I looked at each other and shook our heads.

"I don't think so," I said. "She'd probably just control your blood to come spurting out of your mouth."

"She can do that?" He asked.

"Oh yes." I said. "She can control water with her mind. One of the many perks of being a mermaid."

"So there are other perks?" he asked, doubtful.

"Well, if you include holding your breath for up to an hour, swimming faster than dolphins and having powers, then yes. There are other perks." Said Bella. I snorted again.

"Wow," he said impressed. "What are your powers?" he asked us.

"Let me demonstrate," I volunteered as I scooted over in the water a bit. He watched intently as I froze a section of the water right next to me.

"No way!" he gasped.

"Oh please!" said Bella, bragging. "My power beats the heck out of your power!" she walked up and melted my ice and then set the water on fire. I could tell she was proud of herself for doing that one. I know she's been practicing it quite a lot.

"That's so cool," said Blake in awe. "But… I still want to talk to her."

Bella and I sighed. "Well, if you're trying to commit suicide, go ahead. We'll swim you there, if you'd like." Said Bella.

"Ummm… sure…" he said uneasily.

"Great!" I said in a sarcastic tone. "Let's go get you killed now!"

Bella walked into the sea to join me, who was still in the waves, and we dived in. Blake followed after and grabbed onto us as we swam towards Mako.

**(A/N: So this was another short one. I know you are probably getting sick of the short chapters but that's how it goes! Well I'll have the next one up hopefully by tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to review! Peace!)**


	12. Blake Christopher POV Secrets Revealed

*Blake Christopher*

As Nicole and Bella brought me to Mako Island, I knew I had screwed up.

Lainey probably hated me now. I would too, if I was her. I mean, I guess I couldn't really help my reaction to them; it's not every day you find out your best friend's a mermaid. Of course this explains everything now.

I was holding my breath as they led me through the water. I swear they were swimming this fast just to scare me. It was working. They were smiling as they sped through the crystal clear water. I was sort of annoyed. How could they like swimming this fast? Nicole explained it as "exhilarating". I explained it as "creepy".

I looked at Bella and Nicole's huge grins they had plastered on their faces and wonder how swimming made such an impact on their emotions like that. Bella certainly wasn't that happy just a bit ago. She was yelling her head off at me. Honestly, I was scared. I have _never,_ in my life, been that freaked out by a girl. I thought she was going to go on fire or something. I didn't even know she had it in her. She always was more of the shy, quiet girl.

After going up to get me some air twice, we were near the island. We surfaced once more and they told me to take a really deep breath. I asked them why and they rolled their eyes.

"Just do it." They told me at the same time. I sighed and followed their command. We plunged into the blue and entered a small canal. I wondered where we were going. They were mermaids after all. Maybe Atlantis?

But no. We were only heading for a small cave. As we neared the surface, I realized it wasn't just a cave.

It looked like a dormant volcano. When my head popped up above the surface, I realized that we were in some sort of pool beneath the hole of the volcano. The water was actually really cool and peaceful. It was almost fluorescent, and it reflected off the blue crystals in the cracks of the cave's walls. This really was relaxing. No wonder the girls loved it here.

I suddenly noticed that a song was playing. At first I was confused. _Uhhh… why the heck is music playing here?_ But then I realized someone must have set up a battery charged radio in here. I snorted in my head. Way to ruin the whole "mystical" feeling in this place.

_Cuz I'm breathin' in,_

_And I'm breathin' out._

_I'm wide awake but I can't hear a sound._

_But I'm breathin' in,_

_I can't think about._

_Another you, another me, another now…_

The slow, sad song echoing off of the walls contributed to my guilt somehow.

I looked at a corner of the cave and saw a small figure curled up into a ball, facing away from us. I instantly recognized her.

"Lainey?" I asked, half convinced she was dead or something. The only thing that gave it away was the silent sobs. "Lainey are you okay?"

I could tell she was sort of stunned. Obviously she wasn't expecting me. She slowly turned around and blinked a few times before answering.

"Blake?" she asked trembling.

"We'll give you two some alone time," said Bella as she nudged Nicole, who seemed to want to stay. She sighed and they both dived into the crystal waters.

I got out of the pool and walked over to Lainey. "Lainey, I…"

"Save it, Blake." She said in a bitter tone. "You don't even care at all."

"No, Lainey, I really do," I said as I grabbed her arms. "I feel so stupid for acting the way I did. I didn't mean to be like that."

Tears were threatening to spill out. "Well it's a little too late, isn't it?" she asked, trying not to burst into tears. But she did anyways.

As her sobs rocked her body, she buried her face in my chest. I was a little uncomfortable but realized trying to move would only make things worse for her.

"I'm sorry, Blake!" she said in between sobs. "I wanted to tell you so bad, but I couldn't, and then I kept having nightmares where you hated me for being a mermaid, and then you actually did find out, and you did the same thing…" She started crying again.

I hugged her and pulled her in close. "Its okay, Lainey." I whispered to her. "It's okay."

After a few moments she looked up at me and pulled away a little. She tried to dry her tears with her hands. I wondered why she didn't grow a tail. Bella and Nicole said on the way here that water triggers the transformation, but she was crying and wasn't popping a tail. Maybe since tears are from her body, she wouldn't grow a tail from them.

"I'm sorry I kinda freaked out there Blake," she said, calmed down a lot. "I understand if you're gonna hate me forever and…"

"Lainey…" I said softly as I touched her face, trying to comfort her.

Then I leaned in and kissed her.

Ohmygod. I actually kissed her. I had never dreamed that this would ever happen. I mean, yeah, I had always wanted it to, but I didn't even think it was possible she liked me. But judging by the way she kissed me back, she must have.

I felt so happy as I kissed her. It was like kissing a cotton candy cloud. Her lips were tainted with fading cherry lipbalm, and they were soft as roses. After a bit, I pulled away. She kept her eyes closed for a bit.

"Lainey?" I asked nervous, hoping I hadn't totally screwed things up even more.

She opened her eyes and there were little tears in her eyes. I immediately felt ashamed. "I'm so sorry, Lainey, I didn't mean to…" Then she reached out and kissed me again. And it wasn't any more disappointing than the first kiss. When we were done, she looked back up at me.

"Thank you, Blake." She said, her tears still on her eyelashes.

"Why are you crying?" I asked in concern.

"Because I'm happy!" she said, as the tears spilt over her blue eyes. I leaned in and kissed her again.

"Ahem," said a voice behind us.

We turned to see Nicole and Bella tapping their fingers on the stones outlining the pool in impatience. _How long have they been there?_ I wondered as my cheeks burned bright red.

"Well," said Nicole. "We did enjoy the little- er- _show_, but we do have to go soon. It's getting sort of late." She indicated towards the night sky above us. It was turning purple.

"Right," said Lainey as her cheeks flushed an even brighter red than mine.

"We'll let you two love birds catch up," giggled Bella as she and Nicole dived back under the water. After another quick peck on Lainey's cheek, she dove into the water after them. I sat there amazed at her tail. She caught my attention again by stoking my chin and looking into my eyes.

"You coming?" she asked. I grinned and came in after her. She grabbed my hand as we plunged beneath the pool and swam through the ocean. This time she kept it slow, pointing out the beautiful creatures of the deep to me. The sunset made the water unbelievably beautiful, and everything in it too. That included Lainey. Her hair sparkled in the waves as she swam gracefully in the water. She smiled at me and we kissed again underneath the water. And I don't know about you, but you really should try it.

When we were finished we sped away, I realized I was getting used to the speed as we were almost at the little secluded beach. Nicole and Bella were already there.

As I got onto the beach and Bella dried me off, I was staring at Lainey the entire time. Honestly, I couldn't believe she was a mermaid. It was so unreal. But I loved it. My girlfriend, Lainey the mermaid.

**(A/N: Sorry if you thought this one was a little corny! Also sorry about telling you this would be up yesterday. I was just too busy. Anyways, hoped you liked the little romantic thing that went on between Lainey and Blake here. The song mentioned in here is **_**Another Now**_** by Kate Alexa. I'm not sure what's going to happen next episode, so that one probably won't be up for a few days or something. Sorry bout that! But if you send some ideas to me I could get it done faster! Also, don't forget to review! Love you dearies! ;-P)**


	13. Bella Edwards POV Rain, Rain, Go Away

*Bella Edwards*

Okay, I'm happy for how everything worked out between Lainey and Blake, but honestly! WILL THEY STOP THE LOVEY-DOVEYNESS ALREADY?

"Guys!" I practically shouted at them as we were _trying_ to study for a science test (definitely not our strong point) but were interrupted as Lainey and Blake stopped to kiss every 30 seconds. "We're TRYING to study here!"

Lainey rolled her eyes from her spot beside Blake. "You are so dramatic Bella. We can study for science in a bit, kay?"

I clenched my fists angrily as I spoke. "Dude, it's like 8:00 already! WE HAVE NO TIME LEFT!" A glass of water next to Blake started bubbling.

"Calm down Bells," said Nicole in an annoyed tone. "Let them fail the test if they want to."

I sighed and unclenched my fists just before I would have scalded Lainey and Blake.

Lainey and Blake. Blake and Lainey. That's all the world seems to revolve around anymore. Seriously, this is getting super annoying. I looked at the clock again and decided it was getting pretty late.

"Alright, well, I have softball tryouts tomorrow so I need to get to bed early, so you all need to GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" No one was surprised by my assertiveness. They could tell how irked I've been for the past few weeks of the whole Lainey/Blake thing. Nicole just shrugged and got up with a "See ya,", but Blake and Lainey were a little… distracted.

"Lainey," I tried to say calmly, but failed. "Could you PLEASE get your lips off of your boyfriend and get to your own house already?"

She reluctantly agreed and shot me a dirty look. I just rolled my eyes. She and Blake got their things and headed out the door, giving each other these lovey stares that just about make me want to puke.

The truth is, I do like romantic things. I love movies like the Princess Bride, Titanic, Twilight, and such. But I think that seeing all of this in real life makes me want to gag. There might be a just a _little_ jealousy involved in this, but not a lot. I swear. Really. I mean it…

Okay fine, there was a LOT of jealousy involved in this! I just wish that I had someone like that. But with all of this crazy mermaidness, there isn't a possible way I could start a relationship. Lainey got lucky. It was only their time together as best friends for years before that made this work for them. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure Blake wouldn't have been so okay with Lainey and us being mermaids.

I'm also sort of annoyed with Blake's attitude lately. Every time we want to go swimming, he freaks out saying that someone might see us. We tell him that we've done it before he ever even knew about the secret, but he still persists we be careful a million more times. Lainey thinks it's cute. I think it's annoying.

I sighed as I put my science book into my bag and accepted in my head that romance was not an option. Neither was acing the science test.

I made a stop in the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my hair before climbing onto my bed and quickly turning off the light, landing in my soft bed of pillows and stuffed animals.

That night, all I dreamt about was Lainey and Blake kissing. So much for beauty sleep.

I yawned as I crawled out of bed the next morning and walked to my bathroom. I looked into the mirror and realized I looked like crap from my wonderful sleep last night. Well that was fabulous. I grabbed a brush and yanked it in my hair, then brushed my teeth and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

I could hear my older brother talk about all of his success stories while eating his favorite cereal. I rolled my eyes as I jumped down from the stairs and walked into the kitchen. There he was, the great Peter Edwards, high GPA, top of the honor rolls, football star, overachiever… I loved him and all, but I think that his great achievements always made me feel so self conscious. Maybe that's why I turned out to be shy around people I'm not close to.

He was talking about some football game. I didn't really care. I just grabbed a bagel, popped it in the toaster, and found a banana to eat.

"Bella dear," called my father. "Did you hear that Peter did this, and Peter did that, and blah blah blah blah blah…" I sort of droned it out and answered every few seconds with an "Oh my gosh, that's so great!" No one ever even _asked_ how my life's going. Not like I'd actually tell them about everything in my life.

Once I was done with my breakfast, my mom came in and frowned, noticing that Peter was eating healthy granola cereal and there were the tell-tale crumbs of my bagel on the counter. "Honey," my mother said in a disappointed tone, so it was obviously meant for me. "Look at Peter! He eats healthy breakfasts that give you enough energy for the day. Why are you eating bagels and fruit? For one thing, bagels aren't very good for you, and secondly, you should really eat more than just some bread and some fruit! Are you trying to be anorexic or something?" I sighed. This conversation again.

My mom always thinks that I don't eat a lot because I'm trying to lose weight. And I can tell you this, that's not the case. From our studies, Nicole, Lainey and I could burn off anything we eat that day with just one half-an-hour swim, because of the energy we use swimming that fast. So if I wanted to lose weight, I'd go swimming 3 times a day, not eat light breakfasts. The real reason I didn't eat a lot this morning was because I just wasn't hungry.

I sighed and answered no. To make my mom happy, I grabbed some of the same cereal Peter was eating and poured some into my bowl. I didn't even like the cereal. It was pretty gross.

After finishing the rest of my breakfast, I ran upstairs and stepped into my walk-in closet. After a while of thinking, I picked out an off-the-shoulder grey top with a few blue splatters on the front, cute rubber bangles all up my arms in different colors, a pair of dark blue cut-offs, and some matching navy blue flip flops. I stopped in the bathroom again to put on my trademarked pink lipstick (I am in LOVE with that stuff!) and some mascara and a few sparkly barrettes in my straightened hair from the night before. I looked at my outfit before I left and thought of the day we went shopping that day at the mall before we had decided to go swimming. That was the day Blake found out about us, and the day everything got all out of whack.

We haven't gone shopping together since, mostly because Lainey is always a bit "busy at the moment." That's what she told us whenever we asked her to do something with us. We only saw each other at school and at our daily swims. Not even Blake can get in the way of those.

I did a quick spin in front of the mirror before approving my outfit and heading back downstairs to walk to school.

I grabbed my bag and was about to go outside until I heard a faint sound from the inside of my bag.

_Hey hey you you I don't like your girlfriend!_

_No way no way, I think you need a new one,_

_Hey hey you you I could be your girlfriend!_

I reached into my bag to grab my cell phone. It was Nicole. I tapped the answer button on the touch screen phone. "Hey Nicole, what's up?"

"I was just making sure you were getting a ride to school today."

"Why would I need a ride to school? I only live a few blocks away."

She sighed from the other end. "Just look out your window. You'll see what I mean." Then she hung up.

I creased my forehead as I set the cell phone back into my bag. What did she mean? I walked over to the main window in the living room and pulled aside the blinds in the window.

I groaned internally as I took in the sight before me. It was wet. Really wet. There were huge puddles all over the ground, and the trees above our house were soaking wet, dripping rain. There was a slight trickle of rain still left over from the rainstorm that must have occurred the night before. This was going to be super fun.

I walked into my mom's little office in our house. "Mom?" I asked. "Do you think you could drive me to school?"

She creased her forehead. "Why?" She went back to her paperwork, half-listening.

"Well…" I tried to come up with a good excuse. She looked away from her papers as she had noticed the silence and waited. "I guess I just don't want to ruin my shoes in all of the water."

This was actually a very lame excuse, since these are the shoes I used to wear to the beach all the time, so I never would have minded them getting wet if I wasn't a mermaid. Luckily, my mom didn't notice.

She sighed and checked her watch, then seemed to make a decision. She shrugged and got on her raincoat hanging on a hook next to her. "Why not?"

I prayed to God silently in my head, thanking Him for letting her drive me and begging Him for it to stop drizzling by the time I got to school.

On my way out I grabbed my umbrella that was painfully small. I took a deep breath as I stepped outside. After a few cautious steps from the house to the garage, I was finally safe. I sighed as I got inside the garage and into the car. Now I just had to deal with getting out of the car once I got to school.

After a short drive to school with my mom babbling on about how her health courses on online college were going for her (that's why she's been such a health freak lately), we arrived at the school. My eyes widened as I took in the huge puddles and rain that were in a plethora on the school grounds. **(A/N: I love that word… even though I'm not sure if I used it right!) **I panicked in my head as I wondered what to do.

"Well?" My mom asked, concerned. "Aren't you going to go in?"

I nervously glanced at the ground before me and instantly knew that if I attempted to go out there, I'd pop a tail before I even made it 10 feet. I thought for a few moments before I had an idea.

"Hey mom?" I asked quietly. "Could you go to the girl's bathroom inside of the school for me while I get my stuff ready in here?"

She was confused. "But… why?"

I cleared my throat. "Well… it's that time of the month… and I really needed some stuff…" I looked at her for a few more minutes before she got it.

"Oh!" she said, understanding. "Oh. Okay, well, I'll meet you by your locker, okay sweetie?"

"Thanks mom." I said as she stepped outside of the vehicle and left me to make sure my bag was ready.

Instead I sat there and thought some more. At least Step 1 worked… no, it wasn't actually "that time of the month". I was lucky that my mom didn't remember I had asked her to get me that stuff at the drugstore 2 weeks ago. I really would have been screwed then. I just needed to get her out of the car so I could think. I put my head between my hands and thought for a bit before coming up with something to try. I haven't ever done it before, so I wasn't even sure if it worked.

I concentrated first on the water on the door handles. If I couldn't touch those, I couldn't even get out of the car. I focused my power on it and evaporated the water. Then, once I knew no one was looking and the security cameras by the building were all in different directions than the one I was in, I evaporated the water in front of me. I took a deep breath and walked forward quickly, evaporating any water that was about to fall on me.

I made it to the school doors before I could have made a mistake. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was way too close. I should invest in a jumbo-sized umbrella.

I walked into the school doors and saw Lainey and Nicole standing by their lockers. Lainey was wearing a baby blue mini-dress with white polka-dots, white leggings that went down to her mid-thigh, matching blue flip flops, a white bow headband over her wavy hair (she must have spent a lot of time on it to make it wavy like that), and cute little sapphire rings on her fingers. Nicole was wearing an over-sized raincoat with a huge hat over her everyday shorts and top. She was wearing that pink, purple, and blue plaid over shirt over a black tank top today. I really liked that one.

I noticed Blake was also right behind Lainey, and they were holding hands. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't in the mood for all of this corny lovey-doveyness today. This would be one of the only days of my life that I'll be crabby because of the rain.

My mom walked up to me and handed me a tampon discretely. "Love you honey!" she whispered as she gave me a quick peck on the cheek. I said goodbye and walked over to my locker and tossed the tampon into a pocket of my bag. I didn't need it anyways.

"Hi guys," I said as I dialed the numbers on my lock. 30… 2… 12! My locker snapped open. **(A/N: P.s. that was just some random number I came up with. If it's your locker combination then sorry! Didn't mean to use yours!) **

"Hey," they responded sort of glum. I guess I wasn't the only one who was bummed about the rain.

"How was your morning, girls?" asked Blake. We rolled our eyes.

"Not fun at all." We all said together.

"Why?" Nicole smacked her forehead.

"Blakey," said Lainey in a sugar sweet voice. Again, it made me want to puke. "It was _raining_ this morning."

It took him a while but eventually he got it. And then he freaked out. "Well are you guys okay? I mean, just a drop would have made you change and are you _positively sure_ that no one saw anything? This is serious! You shouldn't have come to school today."

Nicole and I sighed. "We couldn't just tell our parents we're skipping school because of rain." I pointed out.

"I guess," said Blake uninterested. He was more interested in something else…

"BLAKE!" Nicole and I shouted together. He jumped and we rolled our eyes.

"Well, we don't want to be late for class..." said Nicole as she slipped away from us.

"She's right," said Blake as he straightened his back and held Lainey's hand. "Let's go."

When we got in our class, there were two girls standing at the front of the class that I had never seen before. _Huh,_ I wondered. _Are they new here?_

As if to answer my question, our math teacher, Mr. Schnerver, **(A/N: LOL thank you Megan!)** started to speak.

"Hello class, this is Jeanette and Amy. They're new here and I expect everyone to treat them kindly. Is there anything you'd like to say, girls?" he asked as he turned towards them.

"Call me Jean," said the first girl with strawberry blonde hair down to her shoulders as she rolled her eyes.

"I'm okay," said the second girl quickly as her pale cheeks blushed a deep crimson. She had hair up in a ponytail that was just a little more blonde than strawberry. She obviously was pretty shy. I would know. I used to be really shy before I became a mermaid.

I squinted my eyes and cocked my head to the side, as if to get a better look at them. Jeanette- I mean, _Jean_- looked sort of… I don't know… spunky, I guess? Her hair looked like she had curled it and was pinned back with two bobby pins. She had a deep red tank top matching the blush on Amy's cheeks and a black cardigan over it that fell a little above her knees. She was wearing dark rolled up capris. I noticed that there were also lighter blonde highlights in her hair. She also was wearing black eyeliner and red lipstick. Her converse sneakers looked a lot like the ones Nicole was so fond of wearing.

Amy was Jean's polar opposite, it seemed. She was twirling a lock of her blonde ponytailed hair as she scanned the eyes of everyone in the room. Her baby blue tank top had white, sparkly flowers on it, and matched her boot cut jeans and blue headband. She was wearing white flip flops with no embellishment whatsoever on them. She, unlike her sister, was wearing no makeup at all. It looked like she was sort of a girly girl too.

All in all, they didn't look bad. But I couldn't really consider being friends with her, with our secret and all. This secret really was getting in the way of a lot of things. I sighed. It wasn't very fair. Then again, you know what they say. Life is like a cement trampoline. Actually I have no idea what that means. (**A/N: I got that from "secret life of a mermaid" on youtube) **

I looked over to Nicole and saw she was doodling in her math notebook. She must have made the same assumption as me. I looked a little over and saw Lainey a little preoccupied staring into Blake's eyes. _Ew._ I don't even think she knew that there were new kids here.

In the middle of class, Lainey tapped me on the shoulder. "What?" I whispered, hoping Mr. Schnerzer wouldn't hear. He is so strict that he would give you a detention for coughing. I'm not kidding.

"Who are those girls over there?" she asked, pointing her long finger embellished with a sapphire ring at the table where Amy and Jean sat intent on their math work. I raised my eyebrows at her. She _really_ must have been busy with Blake.

"They're new here," I whispered as I rolled my eyes. "Mr. Schnerzer just announced it to the class."

"Really?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "Huh."

"Girls!" shouted Mr. Schnerzer as he stood up from his totally black doom-and-gloom desk. "No talking in class!" I rolled my eyes as a corner of his notes "mysteriously" caught on fire. Mr. Schnerzer grumbled and grabbed something to put it out. Even from across the room I could hear him mutter, "Great, again?"Let's just say I've been getting better at controlling my powers.

I saw that Jean and Amy were a little freaked out about it. They started whispering to each other and Jean glanced at me. I had no idea what they were doing.

After class, Jean said something to Amy and walked over to me as I was opening my locker. "Hey," she said. "What's your next class?"

"Art," I said in a voice that would hopefully say "You look nice and I'm cool with being friendly and all, but I'm not really trying to make any new friends so if you would just go find someone else to hang out with that would be nice." "Why?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I have art too, but Amy has Spanish. She found someone to take her there but I don't really know how to get there. I was wondering if you could show me the way."

"Um…. Sure, I guess," I said in a pretty noninterested voice. "It's just down this hall." We walked towards the art room while Jean asked me some questions.

"So, who are your friends here?"

"Lainey and Nicole. And Blake too. He's Lainey boyfriend."

"What's your favorite class?"

"FACE." **(A/N: FACE means Family And Consumer Education in case you didn't know. It's one of my fav classes)**

"Worst favorite?"

"Science."

"Where do you hang out at break time?"

"Outside on the benches by the basketball court in front of the side doors."

"What project are we working on in art?"

"Notan designs."

"Do you like to swim?"

I paused. All of her other questions had something to do with school. Now suddenly she's asking me if I like to _swim?_

"Well… I'm… hydrophobic…" I said, sticking to the story everyone else believes.

She stopped and looked me in the eyes. "You didn't answer my question."

I just stood there for a while. I'm not the best actress, and I wasn't sure how to handle this. "I'm hydrophobic. I can't even doggie paddle in the water." I finally replied, feeling pretty smart that I told the truth, sort of, but kept my secret.

She narrowed her eyes and just stared at me for a while. I was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Well, don't want to be late on your first day, do you?" I asked her as I walked the rest of the way to art. She silently kept up behind me.

"Hey," I said to Nicole as she sat next to me and Lainey at our usual lunch table by the vending machines.

"Hey," she replied. We were all silent for a moment. Not even Lainey and Blake were making any gooey lovey remarks that make me want to throw up.I wasn't sure why we were all so tense. Blake answered the question.

"So… how do you girls like Jean and Amy?" We a wrinkled our nose. I was a little surprised. I guess I wasn't the only one with a weird impression of them. Or, Jean at least. Amy wasn't in any of my classes.

"Jean kept asking me questions about school. Then suddenly she wanted to know my preferences for _swimming."_ I said, emphasizing how weird it was.

"Well what did you say?" asked Nicole. She always gets so worked up over our secret.

"I said I was hydrophobic. But then she told me I wasn't answering her question and I told her I couldn't."

"Weird," said Lainey thoughtfully. "Practically the same thing happened to me in language arts. She started asking me these random questions about me and then asked if I like swimming. I told her I was allergic to chlorine but occasionally swam in the ocean. But I said I didn't like the ocean much so I didn't really like to swim."

"I had history with her and she did the same thing," said Nicole bewildered. "I answered basically the same way. What do you think is up with her? Do you think she knows our secret?" She whispered the last part.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, Amy doesn't seem to be doing the same things." I reasoned, almost thinking out loud.

"Hi guys," said a voice from above us. We looked up to see- lo and behold- Jean herself, with Amy right beside her. They pulled up some chairs from another table and sat down across from us.

"So, what's up with you guys?" she asked. "Doing anything after school?"

Woah. This was weird. It was like she could read our minds or something. After school we were going to go swimming. We glanced at each other.

"We were going to go down to Lilly's," said Nicole without missing a beat. Lilly's was our favorite smoothie store just a few blocks away from where we lived. This was a good idea to mention, since it was a reasonable story.

"Isn't that the smoothie store?" asked Amy, then blushed. "I mean, I just haven't been able to go around town yet so I don't really know about the places here much…"

"It's okay," said Lainey, sort of inspecting her. "Yes, Lilly's is our favorite smoothie store. Where did you guys move from anyways?"

"Key Largo," said Jean.

"Key wha-wha?" asked Nicole. I rolled my eyes.

"Key Largo," said Amy timidly. "It's in Florida."

"Oh," replied Nici.

"Would you guys mind if we hang out with you after school?" asked Jean. We thought this over.

"Um… sure!" I said, not wanting her to think something was up. "We usually go there right after school. It's not far away. We walk there."

"Cool," said Jean with a smile as she got up. Amy saw that Jean was getting up so she followed her. "Well, see you there!" Then they walked away.

"Well that was weird." Said Blake as he got up to dump his lunch. I looked at the clock and sighed. Lunch was almost over. I glanced at my half eaten sandwich and then tried to take a few more bites before the bell rang. I would need the energy.

"I probably failed the science test!" groaned Nicole as we walked to Lilly's after school. I felt her pain.

"It was so tough!" I agreed. "And not getting the chance to study didn't help the matters." I gave Lainey the evil eye and she just shrugged.

"Well I didn't think it was that hard." Nici and I rolled our eyes. Of course.

"Hey!" shouted a voice from behind us. We turned to see Jean running after us, her math books threatening to drop out of her bag the entire way here.

"Where's Amy?" asked Lainey as Blake put his arm over her shoulder.

Jean shrugged. "I don't know. Don't really care either. It's not like I'm her babysitter."

I turned to Nici and Lainey and gave them a knowing look. Looks like my assumption was right. It didn't seem Amy had anything to do with Jean's odd behavior. Or, well, it might be normal for her. I don't really know.

"Okay," said Nicole as we stepped into Lilly's, the beads hanging from the doorway sliding to the left for us to walk through. We looked around at the place. Apparently this place has been renamed twice. At first it was called the JuiceNet Café, then Rikki's, and then Lilly's. It's been called Lilly's I think for the last 30 or so years. Each time they renamed it, it was redecorated. Amanda, the usual cashier we see here after school who goes to our high school, said that JuiceNet Café had sort of a beachy theme with surf boards and stuff, and then Rikki's had more of a nightclub type atmosphere. Now it had a lot of bright colors, like pink and orange and blue and stuff. I admit it looks a little young, but they have the best smoothies and I go here all the time.

"Hey Amanda!" said Nicole as she sat on a chair next to the counter. "Two strawberry banana boomboxes and one citrus dream." I smiled. Nici knew us so well.

"Right on up," grinned Amanda with a wink as she set off to make our smoothies. She was always so cheerful. As we waited, Jean looked over the little 10 inch laminated menu that was set in multiple places on the counter we were all sitting by.

"Hmmm…" Jean turned to us. "What do you think I should get? The strawberry kiwi kooler and the peachy surprise sound good."

I shrugged. "I like both."

She looked over it for a few minutes until Amanda came back. "One peachy surprise, please?"

"Be right back!" she said after sliding the two strawberry bonanza boomboxes over to me and Lainey and the citrus dream over to Nicole. She knew us well too.

I grabbed the foam cup filled to the brim with fruity goodness and took a slow sip. Aah. Refreshing.

"Here ya go!" said Amanda as she handed the peachy surprise over to Jean. "I can tell your new here. If anything's wrong, just call me." Then she walked away to take someone else's order.

Jean was a little hesitant with her drink, but eventually took a cautious sip.

"Mmm!" she said in shock. "That's really good!"

"I love them too," said Lainey gleefully as she sipped her concoction. "I've been having this one since I was a little kid."

After a few minutes of savoring the fruity flavors, Amanda was back to us.

"Hey," said Amanda in this mysterious voice that I know all too well. I put down my drink in anticipation and waited. "I've got some free time. Do you girls want to hear a story?"

"Yes!" we cried out at the same time. Amanda has been working here practically all of her working life, and she has heard a lot of stories passed down about the weird happening in this café. Even the ones from when it was called Rikki's and the JuiceNet Café. Although, I'm pretty sure that half of the stories are bologna.

"Well," she started, a mischievous grin creeping onto her lips. "You know how this café used to be called Rikki's?" We all nodded except for Jean who quietly listened. "Well it was bought from a guy named Zane. His girlfriend's name was Rikki, which was why he named the café Rikki's, obviously. So anyways, Zane was someone that people would call a strange man. You see, one day he went searching for something on a boat, but apparently it sunk and he almost drowned. What saved his life is actually still a mystery. He was still fading in and out of consciousness but he claimed afterwards that he had seen something with a giant golden tail bash into the door of the boat before he blacked out. He awoke on Mako Island with a girl who was out there and had found him there. He kept claiming that he couldn't have been able to get out of the boat, but she insisted that she found him just lying there on the beach. A while later, he went out swimming again to try to find the creature he had seen, claiming it was too big to be an ordinary fish, and he said that what he found was extraordinary. Apparently, he said he had found a mermaid. He said the mermaid had long red hair and a shiny golden tail and it was swimming away from the wreck of the boat he had almost drowned in, but everyone just laughed. He kept insisting it was true and even contacted a marine biologist. Then suddenly he stopped talking about it. He never said one more peep about the wreck. About two years later, he bought the JuiceNet Café and renamed it Rikki's. People say that a lot of weird things happened there, and most of them stopped once Zane had handed it down to his son and daughters. After another 10 years, his relatives closed down and someone bought it and renamed it Lilly's. Nothing weird happened again once Zane and all of his relatives were gone from the café. No one really knows why." She leaned away from us, an expectant grin on her face. "Wasn't that somethin'?"

It was. My shocked face at the story was identical to Nicole, Lainey, and Blake's. They were obviously thinking what I was thinking. _Did this Zane guy actually find out about mermaids somehow?_ I was sure that the girl on the beach who claimed she found him there must have been the mermaid who saved him. And his description of the tails was spot on. This must have been a true story.

Jean looked pretty shocked too. "I… I have to go…" she said awkwardly as she left her unfinished smoothie on the counter, something I would never dream of doing, and then slid out of the café.

"Amanda," said Lainey in a voice an adult would use to reprimand a small child. "You scared her off!"

Amanda shrugged. "Oh well. It was a cool story though." Someone else in the café must have been ready to order since she picked up her notepad and left. "Got to go! See ya!"

I tossed my smoothie container. Even if I wasn't done, I still would need to get out of here. We needed to talk.

Outside of the café, Blake started asking questions.

"That Zane guy must have known all about mermaids!" he whispered to us. "Do you think that the marine biologist he contacted found out anything?

"Probably not," I reasoned. "Otherwise, wouldn't the whole world know about mermaids?"

"Good point." He said.

"What I want to know is why Jean was even more freaked out than we were," said Lainey, thinking. Her eyes widened. "You don't think…"

"No way," said Nicole with a shake of her head. "It's not even possible. Jean could not be a mermaid! She doesn't even live here!"

"How do we know she didn't come on a vacation or something and then transformed?" questioned Blake.

I shook my head. "Not likely."

"Well, _something_ about the story made her freak out," accused Lainey. "Whether she's a mermaid or not, I don't think we should try to be good friends with her."

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you Einstein." She rolled her eyes back and grabbed Blake's hand. That only made me roll my eyes again.

Nicole looked at a watch she had worn today. "Well, I think we've got enough time to go for a quick swim. You guys up for it?"

"Of course!" I said.

Lainey grinned and gave Blake a quick kiss. "We'll be back soon, 'kay?"

"Okay," said Blake as he kissed her again. Nicole rolled her eyes and pulled Lainey apart from him. "Let's keep it G-Rated here!" she shouted back to Blake as we headed for the small beach we love to hang out at… whenever Lainey isn't "busy".

We dived into the ocean and felt the familiar transformation as our legs merged from flimsy looking sticks in the water into a strong, graceful tail fit for swimming through currents. Which, by the way, is actually pretty fun.

Nicole grabbed our hands before we could start swimming and gave a hand signal. We grinned as she counted down on her fingers from three to one. Once she hit one, we all sped away, racing towards Mako Island. And for the record, I'm pretty sure I beat them.

**(A/N: Wow that was a long chapter! Sorry about how long it took to get this up. I've been pretty busy. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. It will probably be pretty short. Also, the song mentioned is "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne. Of course, I don't own it. Don't own h2o either. But that's pretty obvious, otherwise why would I be writing on a fanfiction site? Anywho, I want to thank mochimochi32 for reviewing. It was really helpful and I love it when people review! Now, I'm not going to be like those people who say "no next chapter unless I get this many reviews!" or whatever, but I would appreciate it if you guys could give me some feedback. Thank you SO much to all the people who added me to their favorite stories list, like x-Ruth-Finch-x and mochimochi32. Thanks guys! If there was another person, sorry I missed you; it was hard to find the people who added my story. Again, I don't know exactly how to use the word "plethora" so if I used it wrong so-rry! ;-) And I know that the smoothie's names aren't the most creative; I just came up with them. So, review, rate, subscribe, and EAT YOUR TACOS!)**


	14. Lainey Woods POV Answers Please!

*Lainey Woods*

I yawned as I pried my face off of my white desk. I looked at my impromptu dinner last night- a cheese sandwich- and connected the dots to figure out I had fallen asleep on the computer. I groaned as I sat up and looked at my calendar, marking off another day with a big red "X". Today was Saturday. Yipee. Gosh, I was so tired I couldn't even sound enthusiastic in my _thoughts._

Ever since Amanda at Lilly's told us this story about Zane, I've been doing some research online. I found out that Zane's girlfriend, Rikki, had two best friends named Cleo and Emma. Then she became friends with Bella. There were always strange things going on around them, which was especially true when I read that after many years of being a professional swimmer, Emma suddenly quit. I was certain that these girls were mermaids, but I wasn't sure of much else.

I yawned again and walked over to my mirror. I shrieked at the sight of me. My hair was a mess! I immediately ran to the bathroom and tried to comb it out with a wide toothed comb first. Then, I grabbed a spray bottle full of water and sprayed it on my hair.

Probably not the best idea. 10 seconds later, I was feeling the consequences. I groaned as I looked at my ginormous tail taking up a big portion of my tiny bathroom. I couldn't believe I was so tired that I actually did that!

After a few minutes of banging my head on the sink (another fabulous idea), resulting in a whopping head ache, I grabbed a towel and dried myself off.

After that I was pretty awake. I combed my hair thoroughly and didn't bother to change out of my silk cherry pajamas. I walked back into my bathroom to research some more.

I typed in the search box "Cleo Sertori". I thought it would be a good idea to check them out. For some reason it took a while, but I found a link that said "Cleo Mcartney". I tried that and found her.

Basically all I found out was where she went to school, which was the same school as me, her relative's names, and some more information about her life. Apparently she is still alive, but in her 70's or something. I wasn't really paying attention to her age. She's married to Lewis Mcartney and they had two girls and a boy. _Lewis must have known her secret,_ I thought to myself. _They couldn't have been married without him knowing._ After that, I did a little search on Lewis. Turns out he's a scientist in America, and lives there with Cleo. His daughters and son have all moved into other parts of the world, and so have their sons and daughters. I found a bunch of stuff he came up with that had a lot to do with the planetary alignments and stuff. _He must have been trying to find out more about the full moon madness,_ I thought. I read that he stated that the most powerful lunar alignments were the lunar eclipse and when all of the planets align, which is every 50 years. I noted that and also jotted down that the next date for the alignment is next year. That might be something important to remember.

I tried searching for Bella and Emma too. Turns out they got married too, to Will and Ash. They are all living too, but the same age as Cleo. All in all, it wasn't a very productive search.

But then I found something that caught my eye. It was a report from Lewis when he was in his 30's. He stated, "In the past years, the moon has been a mystery to us, but now we are coming to an understanding of the magic of the moon. Many studies have shown us before that the moon affects the tides, and can also affect us, since we are all 70% water. Especially when it is a full moon. It makes sense, then, that people that have more water in their bodies are more affected. To them, the moon basically controls them…" It went on about lunar cycles and stuff I didn't really understand, even being the smarticle I am, but I did understand this part. He was saying that people with more water in their bodies (aka us, the mermaids) are severely affected by the full moon, which must be why we have no control over ourselves when we see the full moon. There probably is some level we can achieve so that we could overcome it, but I don't see that happening in our immediate future. The only thing that really puzzled me now was the moon dust…

I searched for a bit and found another report. "After the full moon," said some scientist that I didn't bother to read his name. "There have been reported sightings of a white dust formation found deep in the jungle of Mako Island. It had been showing up ever since the comet hit so close to here. Even the best scientists are puzzled why this comet entered our atmosphere and then suddenly drifted away. Some even said that they saw a beam of light strike the comet, just like the one mentioned in the legend in Ireland. There was no proof, though, that this actually happened. The dust found has caused some people to feel numb, as they reported. But as soon as we have tried to take it into the sunshine to take a closer look and examine it, all we get is some rock. Studies have shown that it is moon rock, although we have no idea how the rock came here. We are guessing it may have come from the comet."

This made so much sense! The comet came and was stopped by the mermaids (I'm sure of it!) and the comet must have deposited some of the dust. Maybe the dust somehow comes here when we see the full moon? I don't know. I got onto my email and messaged Nicole, Bella, and Blake. (My heart warmed up just thinking of him!)

**From: **

**To: nicoleisawesome , bellababy , blake **(I rolled my eyes at Blake's boring name)

**I just found out some ****MAJOR!**** news! Come 2 my house ASAP! P.s. Nicole, no, you are not allowed to bring snacks. This is serious!**

I added that little message at the end to save some time. I know her all too well. I clicked the send button and in minutes, Nicole and Blake were here.

The first thing Nicole said to me as I opened the door was "Why couldn't I bring any snacks?" I just rolled my eyes and looked at Blake. My heart just melted.

So anyways, I let them in and we went upstairs to wait for Bella. She's always late. Well, rather be fashionably late than be way too early. That's my motto. I keep reminding myself to write that in my diary.

Nicole played around with my little collection of sea shells I found on a swim once while Blake flipped through pages of my fashion magazines, giving every page a weird look.

"'Are You Destined to Be Together?'" he asked, mocking a quiz you can take in one of my _Seventeen _magazines with a raised eyebrow. I blushed and grabbed the magazine from his hands. He'd start laughing if I told him I had already taken the quiz. I could feel the question coming.

Luckily, I heard a doorbell from downstairs. I jumped up and ran down the stairs. I opened the door to see Bella waiting.

"Finally!" I said, giving her a hug. "Let's go upstairs." We went upstairs where Nici was now twirling around in my chair and Blake was counting something on one of my notebooks.

"So what are we here for?" asked Bella as she sat down on my bed.

"Well…" I started as I explained my findings. Nicole was the only one who didn't look shocked.

"So you brought us here to tell us what some 70 year old guy said about the magic of the moon?" she asked in a mocking tone. I glared at her.

"Nicole! This is big news! We're finally figuring out things! And that's way better than being left in the dark. Now we sort of know why the full moon affects us."

"Oh my god!" shouted Blake as he stood up. "I forgot to tell you guys! It's a full moon tomorrow!"

We all groaned. This was going to be super fun.

"What are we going to do?" asked Bella.

"I don't know," I said with a frown. "Our plan didn't work out from last time. I agree that we should sleep over at one of our houses, but I don't know how we are going to get away from the moon." I slumped onto one of my beanbags. Blake got up and sat next to me, holding my hand. It instantly sent butterflies to my stomach.

"Don't worry, Lainey," said Blake, trying to comfort me. "It'll be alright."

I smiled as I gazed into his gorgeous brown eyes and gave him a quick kiss. That one turned into another, and another, and another…

"Ahem," coughed Nicole. I blushed and leaned back. I looked over and saw Bella, who was trying her best to ignore me. I don't know why she gets so worked up about me kissing Blake.

"We also have other problems," I said as I brought up the fact that Jean has been trying to hang out with us a lot.

This Bella responded to. "Yeah, I don't want to be mean to her, but she just won't leave us alone! She was even at the softball tryouts, and she kept asking me if I wanted to drink some water. It's really bugging me!"

_Hey I heard you are a wild one_

_Ooooh_

_If I took you home it'd be a home run_

_Show me how you'll do_

_I want to shut down the club_

_With you…._

I grabbed my cell phone off of my pillow after listening to that bit of the song. I love that song!

"Hello?" I asked into the cell phone.

"Hi!" said the voice on the other end that sounded familiar. "This is Jean!"

"Oh! Uh, hi Jean." I said lamely as I gave Nicole, Bella, and Blake (again, flutters) a knowing look. "What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you were busy tomorrow night." My thoughts jolted to what Blake just had told us. _Tomorrow's a full moon…_

"Tomorrow night?" I asked repeating the question. Nicole was signaling the "no" signal about 50 times and Blake was frantically shaking his head. He is so sweet how he looks out for me. Bella just mouthed the words "No way". "Sorry Jean. I'm busy."

"Doing what?" God she is nosy.

"Well… I… have to work on a language arts project!"

"Lainey, you're my partner for that project." She said, suspicion creeping into her voice.

"Oh? Did I say language arts? I meant to say social studies! Well, bye!" I hung up on her. I felt a little bad about it but I couldn't let her come over on a _full moon!_

Nicole erupted with laughter once I got off. "That was too funny!" she said in between giggles. I rolled my eyes. The sun could go supernova and she would think it's "too funny".

"This is serious, Nici," I said as I tossed my phone onto my bed and frowned. Blake wrapped his arms around me to comfort me. "I don't know how to get rid of her."

"That sounded really mean but I get what you mean," said Bella. "Maybe we should just confront her. Then we'll know exactly what's going on."

I shook my head as Nicole said "No way!"

"We can't confront her," reasoned Nicole. "We hardly know her and think how embarrassing it would be if we accused her of being a mermaid or something and turns out she always acts like this!"

"Hmmm…" I think about that. That's pretty much what I had thought, but when Nici said it, I had a brief idea. I thought about it.

"What?" Bella asked me as she scooted closer to me.

"Well, how about we ask Amy?" I look at them. They looked funny, both their heads cocked to the side and their eyes confused. I almost giggled.

"That's not a bad idea sweetie," said Blake as he gave me a kiss on the cheek. I blushed.

"You know, you just might be right," said Bella. "It doesn't seem Amy knows about whatever Jean's getting worked up about."

"Problem is," I said. "It might be that Amy is having Jean doing all the questioning and stuff. Amy might be in on it too."

"Oh come on!" said Nicole as she rolled her eyes. "Have you seen her? She's as harmless as a fairy."

"Have you ever seen a fairy?" asked Bella.

"Well no…"

"They could be vicious and bloodthirsty demons."

"Fairies don't exist." sighed Nicole.

"There once was a time when I thought mermaids didn't exist either." Bella raised an eyebrow.

Nicole rolled her eyes and sighed again. "Alright, point taken."

"Well I think the whole idea about asking Amy is a good one," said Blake. "It's less risky asking her than Jean, don't you think? And we can't go on forever without answers."

Bella seems to think about this. "You're right, I guess." She stands up. "Maybe I could talk to her about it at our next softball practice when Jean is playing and I'm not. Amy was at the practice last time."

Blake shook his head. "No, it would be a better idea for you guys to confront Amy together."

"Alright," said Nicole. "How about at Lilly's at noon tomorrow before we get ready for the full moon? We could text her to come alone."

I rolled my eyes and snorted. "_Come alone and your loved ones will be spared…"_ I said in a creepy voice. We all cracked up.

"But who has her number?" asked Bella.

Nici raised her hand. "I do. We're partners for a science project and we exchanged numbers."

I nodded. "Well that's settled then. Who's house are we going to stay at tomorrow?"

"Well my brother will be out of town for a football game and will be spending the night with my parents. I'll be free." Said Bella.

"Great!" said Nicole as she grabbed her phone from her pocket. "I'll just call my parents and ask if it's alright." She left the room to talk.

I shrugged away from Blake and stood up. "I'll be right back. I'll just go ask my mom if it's okay." I walked down the stairs to my mom's study and knocked. "Mom? Can I come in?" I walked in to see her writing something frantically on a piece of paper.

"What is it honey?" she asked exasperated as she stopped writing and rotated her wrists.

"Well I was wondering if I could spend the night at Bella's house tomorrow. Would that be okay?" I asked.

"Um, sure honey. That'll be fine. Along as theirs no boys there, got it?"

"Sure mom. I promise. " I reply sincerely as she turns her back to her desk to continue working.

I closed the door behind me and crept away. I didn't want to bother her too much. She was working really hard to get a promotion at her job and I didn't want to stop her.

I got back upstairs to see Nicole finished with her conversation on the phone. She was now texting someone with Bella giving her suggestions on how to write it. It was probably to Amy. Blake was back to counting something he had found on my notebook. I'd have to ask him later what that was about.

"Well, it's okay with my mom." I pointed to Nicole. "How 'bout you?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It's cool with my parents too."

"Sweet," I say as I sit criss-cross on my bed.

"And you all don't have to worry one bit," said Blake as he set the notebook face-down on the floor. "Because I'll be there ever step of the way."

I shake my head. "Uh-uh. My mom told me absolutely no boys allowed. Sorry baby."

Blake sighed. "Oh well. I just got all this new stuff and… oh, never mind."

"What is it?" asked Nicole as she stepped closer to hear."

"Well, it was going to help you guys out with the full moon but… oh well."

Bella groaned. "Just tell us already!"

Blake grinned. "Well, if you insist. They're dark glasses that will prevent you from seeing the moonlight."

"Wouldn't that prevent us from seeing anything else too?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but…"

"Then we mind as well just close our eyes and walk around blind!" said Nicole, exasperated.

"Well if you woke up and accidentally saw the moonlight, that would be pretty tragic. So I think you should just keep the glasses on in case of a situation like that. Besides, you all have to promise to go to bed immediately. If I can't be there, then you guys can at least promise me this."

We all sighed and agreed. Just then Bella got a call from her mom telling her she had to go back home to eat. She left and then Nicole and Blake followed soon after.

I sat in my room alone for a bit after they had left. I looked around the room and saw the notebook Blake had been looking at. I walked over to grab the notebook, but my mom called me up for dinner.

"Coming mom!" I shouted down. I took one last look at the notebook before walking downstairs.

**(A/N: Sooooooooo sorry about how long it took to upload this one! Everything has been so busy and I finished this and then somehow lost all my progress and I had to restart it, so it's not as flow-y. Wild Ones by Flo Rida and Sia was mentioned also. BTW, hopefully the next chapter will be out soon! It will either be in Nicole or Jean's POV. Well, review pretty pretty please and the next chapter might be up sooner ;-) Thank you for reading! )**


	15. Nicole Paige POV Storm on the Horizon

*Nicole Paige*

I waited at the entrance to Lilly's impatiently. When would the girls get here? I wanted to make sure they got here before Amy did. Luckily, fate was on my side today.

"Hiya!" said Lainey as she ran toward me, arm-in-arm with Blake and Bella following her. "Are we late? Is Amy here yet?"

"Not yet…" I said as we walked inside. I checked the clock on the wall. "It is 12:15 though. Maybe she decided not to come…"

Bella looked at the clock too and shrugged. "Well, while we wait, how about we get some smoothies?" We all agreed.

After ordering our usual and waiting for another 5 minutes, we heard the jangling of beads near the door. We turned to see Amy cautiously walking in. She saw us pretty quickly and I swear, she was sweating buckets.

She sat down next to Lainey hesitantly and stuttered, "S-so, w-why am I here again?"

"Oh," said Lainey nonchalantly. "Not much. We're just going to ask you some questions, okay?"

She looked pretty confused. "About what? Jean told me this wasn't a very good idea…" She slapped her hand over her mouth as I raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I was supposed to say that."

I looked knowingly at my friends. This was going to be easy.

"Look, Amy," said Bella. "You're sister's been acting…. Pretty…" She turned to us. "How would I say this?"

"Weird?" I contributed. She nodded. "Exactly." We looked to Amy again. She was sweating even more now. _Poor girl_, I thought to myself.

"Jean keeps trying to ask us about water…" I started.

"And we were wondering if she maybe thought we were…" Lainey trailed off.

"Were… what?" For some odd reason, Amy seemed a little more relaxed.

"Mermaids," said Blake matter-of-factly. Amy blinked.

"Mermaids?" she asked, not sure she heard us right.

"Yeah." Said Bella. "Mermaids.

"Why… why would Jean think you guys are mermaids?" she asked incredulously. "That doesn't even make sense! The only mermaids are…" Her eyes got wide and she gasped in a quick breath and pursed her lips together.

"Who?" I heard someone ask with a menacing tone that even I couldn't have handled. Based off of the looks my friends gave me, I assumed it was my voice. "Who are the only mermaids?"

"I… I can't tell you!" she blurted out. I got closer and raised an eyebrow. I saw her gaze turn towards my hand and I motioned to Bella. Bella put her hand up nonchalantly and slowly closed her fist. Amy's eyes practically bulged out of her head.

"Alright!" she said. Bella put her hand down and Amy started breathing again. "My grandma. She's the only mermaid I know of. Please don't burn me!" I raised an eyebrow.

"Burn you?" asked Lainey.

"It's my grandma's power." She said with some deep breaths.

"Who was your grandma?" asked Bella.

"Her name's Rikki." She said.

We all looked at each other. No wonder! This made so much more sense now.

"Well, I've answered your question, so can I ask one?" asked Amy shyly.

"ONE question," warned Bella. "And it has to be directed towards only one of us."

"Okay…" she turned towards me. "Do YOU know of any mermaids?"

I tightened my jaw as I answered, "yes." She raised both her eyebrows.

"Who?" she blurted.

"Hey!" said Lainey. "One question!"

"It's all right, Lainey." I said "She practically knows anyways! And besides, maybe she can help us keep it from Jean…"

"Noooo way!" said Bella. "We've worked hard to keep this secret!"

"Wait…" Amy seemed to be catching on. "You guy are…. Mermaids? For real?"

We all sighed. Why even try to deny it? "What made you guess?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well… I thought when Bella was going to burn me that maybe she was just like us…"

"What do you mean?" asked Bella.

"Well, since my family members are the descendants of Rikki, we all have the power to heat things, but we aren't mermaids." Said Amy.

"Huh." I said. That actually made sense.

"Thanks Amy," said Lainey.

"For what?"

Lainey smiled. "Well I'm just thanking you in advance for not telling your sister about us. I know you won't blab."

"Uh… sure?" She didn't look too sure.

"Seriously Amy," said Blake. "This is important. Don't take this lightly."

"I promise." She sounded a little more sincere this time.

"Well that's good," I said as I looked at the clock. "Sorry Amy, but we have to go."

"Why?"

"Duh!" said Lainey with a roll of her eyes. "Tonight's a full moon!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Amy.

"Mermaids can't touch water or look at the moon or it's reflection on a full moon or we literally go crazy." Bella explained. "Trust me, it's not fun."

Amy's eyes widened. "W-wait… are you sure?"

"Uh, yeah," I said. "Blake's bruises are proof." Blake rolled up his white sheer shirt and showed her some light yellow-ish bruises that were almost gone. Lainey looked away. She hated reminders of that one night it was a full moon.

Amy choked a little. I wasn't sure why. "Okay… I have to… go…" She left very abruptly. I turned to my friends. "What's with her family and quick exits?"

After finishing our smoothies, we left and walked towards Bella's house. Blake had gone home already. We walked along a peaceful dock slowly, since we had enough time. But the slow walk only made us get nervous. By the time we reached Bella's place, we were practically hyperventilating.

We walked in and immediately started setting up the house. We took pieces of cardboard that Bella had in her room and used good old duct tape to tape them to all of the windows. I was sent to grab all of the snacks.

I walked towards the cupboards and grabbed popcorn and bowls, soda, Twizzlers, Skinny Cow Candies (Lainey would have killed me if I didn't grab them), Sour Patch Kids, M & M's, and on my way out of the kitchen, the three movies we rented, the Hunger Games, Red Riding Hood, and Breaking Dawn Part One. **(A/N: Yeah, I know the Hunger Games isn't out yet)** I walked into the living room to see all the windows boarded up and sleeping bags piled in front of the TV, along with some towels. I set the bowls down and tossed the popcorn bags to Bella. "Go wild." I said. She rolled her eyes and popped the popcorn with her power in seconds. She tossed the bags back. It was just so much quicker this way than using a microwave. I opened the bags carefully, making sure not to get the buttery goodness all over my fingers. I emptied them into the bowls and then ripped open the packages to the candies.

After slipping into my sleeping bag which was positioned next to Lainey's, I set out the candies and took out the movies. I showed them to Lainey and Bella as they dug into the popcorn I haven't been able to try yet. "So, which one?"

"What ones do we have again?" asked Lainey.

I looked at them again. "Um, the Hunger Games, Red Riding Hood, and Breaking Dawn Part One." I looked back up at their deciding faces.

"The Hunger Games." They said at the same time. I grinned. "You read my mind." I crawled to the TV and popped the disc into the Blu Ray player.

A bag of popcorn and M & M's later, we were bawling as Rue let out her last breath and Katniss covered her in a bed of flowers.

Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder and the power went out. We all screamed for at least five seconds. We looked around. Without the moonlight in here, it was pitch black.

"Bella? Nicole?" asked Lainey as she crawled around. She bumped into me and shrieked.

"It's okay Lainey!" I calmed her down. "It's just me." I squinted as I tried to look around. "But where's Bella?"

"I don't know…" said Lainey as she grabbed my hand. "Oh how I wish Blake was here." I heard a shuffling sound behind me and I turned around to see a bright light. This time I was the one who shrieked.

"I found some candles!" said Bella as she sat down next to us, setting out some candles that were flickering a warm red color.

"Bella!" I scolded her. "You scared me half to death!"

She giggled. "Sorry! I couldn't resist!" She left for a few seconds and came back with more candles unlit. She sat down again and used her power to set the candles on fire.

I started breathing again as I took in my surroundings. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. We heard another crack of lightning and we all shrieked.

Lainey looked up as if she could see the storm clouds. "I wonder what brought the sudden storm on." She pondered. "It was just fine and then suddenly…" She didn't need to finish.

We all huddled closer together and wrapped blankets around us. Every time we got a bit sleepy, another bolt of lightning would strike and we would all sigh as we were jolted back awake. I groaned. This was going to be a long night, I could tell.

**(A/N: This is another little short chapter. I mentioned a lot of stuff in here that I don't actually own, like, M & M's, Twizzlers, Skinny Cow Candies, Sour Patch Kids, the Hunger Games, Red Riding Hood, and Breaking Dawn. The next chapter is going to be starting right after when Amy left, so it's going to be about 1:00-ish in Jean's POV. It's mostly about Amy confronting her. It'll be fun, trust me. The one after that will be in Blake's perspective though. And yay for me, I got this one up quickly! Thank you again to the people who have reviewed and subscribed! I really appreciate reviews! Even if it's, like, one sentence. So review and I hope you like this chapter! :-) By-by lovelies!)**


	16. Jean Holm POV Moon Madness

*Jean Holm*

_After Amy left Lilly's, she headed towards her house…_

I was sitting in my new room looking through a cardboard box filled with shelves and little trinkets when Amy barged through my door.

"I can't believe you!" she shrieked at me. I abruptly stood up, not sure what she was talking about. It must be something important because she was usually not this assertive when she was upset. "You lied to me!" She had small tears in her eyes.

Upon hearing those words, I immediately thought of my all-time biggest secret and panicked. I shook my head to get rid of the thought. _She couldn't know,_ I thought to myself. _Could she?_

"After all these years," she said as she got closer to me. "You haven't even been honest with me at all." She grabbed a bottle of water I was drinking with a straw from my dresser I had just set up and held it in front of me. I immediately backed up. "Why didn't you tell me you were a mermaid?"

My eyes widened. "What do you…" I began. She tossed the water at me and I evaporated it before it could touch my skin. She tossed some more. I evaporated it again and ran out the door. She tried to burn my skin to stop me but I burnt hers even hotter. "Ow!" she exclaimed. I looked at her guiltily and ran outside. I had never shown her I had more power than her. She didn't know. She _couldn't_ know that I was a…

I had made it to a small beach I had found the day before that no one goes to and I jumped in, clothes and all. To anyone watching I would look crazy, but to me, this was totally normal. After all, I am a…

_Splash!_ I heard a splash behind me and I panicked again. I whipped my head around to see Amy. She didn't look at all shocked. She just had sort of a sad expression on her face as she took in my golden tail and scaly bra top. I gave her a guilty look before we headed for the surface.

"…How?" asked Amy when we were in my room about 15 minutes later. "And…. Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why didn't you ever tell me you were a mermaid before?" I sighed. Now came the moment of truth.

"Well… you know how Rikki is our grandma?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, turns out, the eldest daughter inherits the mermaid gene and becomes a mermaid. The others just gain the powers. But the mermaids have stronger powers than just the ones that inherit just the power." I tried to explain. "And then only the eldest daughter has the ability to pass on the mermaid gene, and so on and on…"

"And since you were born a few minutes before me," started Amy as she caught on. "You inherited the mermaid gene?"

"Once I turned 10." I said. "I had always had stronger powers than you, but I didn't get my full mermaidness until I was 10 years old. It was the same with our mom. On my 10th Birthday she told me." I looked her in the eyes. "I'm really sorry I didn't tell you. Mom told me we mermaids weren't supposed to let even our closest family members or friends know. I always thought it was a stupid rule, since you knew about grams."

She was silent for a minute. "Well, I forgive you. What are sisters for?"

I grinned and gave her a big hug as we giggled. When we stopped, I was the one to ask her a question. "Hey, how did you find out that I was a mermaid anyways? I was always very careful not to give away hints."

"It was the full moon that did it." She explained. "Every full moon you would stay inside. You would always say you felt sick. You wouldn't even look out windows. Probably so you didn't go all insane." I creased my forehead though. Her explanation didn't make much sense.

"Wait, how did you know about all that?" I asked her. "Only mermaids know about this stuff."

She looked nervously at the ground. "I'm not supposed to say…"

"Amy, I just admitted to the biggest secret of my life! Could you at least tell me who told you about this stuff?"

"I promised I'd keep the secret." I rolled my eyes inside of my head. The person who told her the so called "secret" must be an idiot. Amy never keeps secrets. It's way too easy to get her to talk.

"Who told you Amy?" I asked her with a sigh, knowing she would crack. _5… 4… 3… 2… 1…_

"It was those girls!" she blurted out. "The ones you told me I shouldn't meet at Lilly's. They asked me if you thought they were mermaids. I was confused and eventually they told me that they WERE mermaids and they wanted me to make sure you didn't find out. Then they had to leave because they said the full moon was coming and they couldn't look at it, and that's when I connected the dots." She breathed a sigh of relief. I knew she hated having to keep secrets.

I thought about what she said. I always knew those girls were special.

"You know what's weird?" I said slowly, not looking at Amy directly in the face. "They aren't our relatives. Or one of Rikki's friends relatives." I looked at Amy. Her eyes were wide and suspicious.

"Do you think they became a mermaid the same way gram's did?" she whispered to me. I nodded. "Which is how?" she asked. I didn't know the answer to that one.

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "Grandma never told us. The only ones who know are grandpa and grandma's friends, Emma, Cleo, and Bella, and of course their husbands."

"Weird." Said Amy as she leaned backwards onto my bed. I nodded and then checked my watch. "Hey, Amy," I said as I turned towards her. "The moon's going to be up soon."

"What happens exactly, you know, when you see the moon?" she asked me.

"Well…" I started, unsure whether I should bring up the horrendous memory. "Remember Lucy Morrison's party when we were 12?"

"Yeah."

"Remember when I…"

Her eyes got wide and she laughed. "You mean, the sprinklers and the peanut butter…" I blushed.

"Uh, yeah. Please don't mention this to anyone or I will literally hunt you down!" She believed me and stopped laughing. "Right." She said after letting out one little giggle.

I stood up and walked towards the kitchen to grab some snacks. "Want to watch a movie?" I asked Amy.

"Sure!" she said. We headed towards the living room to watch it.

A few hours later, I checked my watch. The moon was going to rise any second now. I looked at the covered windows around me, making sure there weren't any cracks where you could see through into the outside.

"Amy!" I called out my sister's name. "While your upstairs, check to make sure the bathroom's windows are covered, okay?"

"OKAY!" she yelled back down. I slumped back into the fuzzy purple bean bag we had unpacked yesterday along with our couch and TV and plopped a Dorito chip into my mouth. _Crunch!_ I closed my eyes and listened to the pattern of my chewing as I thought about those girls… Lainey, Bella, and… what was it… Nicole. Yes. Her too. _Crunch, chomp!_

I wondered what they were doing right now. If they were very new mermaids, hopefully they knew not to look at the moon. I almost wanted to call them; I did have one of their numbers. But they probably wouldn't react well to me knowing their secret. After all, they had trusted Amy not to tell me. I rolled my eyes as I thought of how stupid it was to do that. Trusting my sister with a secret, no matter how big or small, would be like trusting a dog not to bark. It's just not possible. _Crunch, crunch!_

Besides, I saw Bella burn those math notes, and based on her power, I could easily conclude that she was at least 3 months old- mermaid wise, that is. And that would have meant that she has seen the moon, so no doubt she knows of its power. _Chomp, crunch, OW!_ I opened my eyes and creased my forehead as I sat up and looked behind me, only to see Amy sprawled on the floor.

"Ow…" she groaned. I rolled my eyes and walked over to help her up. That girl is about as graceful as a lump of rock. Falling down a hill.

"So," said Amy after dusting herself off. "What movie should we watch?"

I shrugged. "You choose." She smiled gleefully and hopped to the TV and, after a few minutes of looking back and forth between two movies she finally slid one into the DVD player. She turned to me with a grin and said, "Snow white and the Huntsman!" I cocked my head and gave her an approving nod.

"Good job." I sat down next to her, this time on the blue fuzzy bean bag, as we watched Kristen Stewart kick evil queen butt.

During the middle of the movie, after chugging down the last of my Dr. Pepper, I realized I had to go. _Bad._ I jumped off of the bean bag and ran upstairs with a, "Gotta go!" to Amy.

I quickly dashed into the bathroom and sat on the pot. _Aaah._ I thought as I let it go.

After finishing my business, I realized that the window in the bathroom had one blind that broken and therefore a little crooked. There was a little light shining through. I rolled my eyes as I tried to think of how it got like that. _Amy,_ I thought immediately. I sighed and walked over to the blind to fix it.

The one thing I don't get is why, after 5 years of being a mermaid, I was dumb enough to go up to the window and try to fix it. Honestly, I should have known better. But of course, I didn't.

When I tilted the section of the blind so it was normal again, a little bit of light reflected into the sink below, catching a drop of water. Without even trying, I saw the water out of the corner of my eye and immediately stopped. The water was almost glowing. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I knew what was going on in the back of my mind, but I suddenly felt that I really didn't need to know why this was happening, so I shoved that thought even farther into the back of my mind. There was only one thought that stayed: _Mako Island._

The walls around me got very blurry and started to spin, and I felt weightless but very heavy at the same time. I heard something coming from somewhere, something that sort of sounded like a _thump, thump, thump_, but it hit my eardrums as a very dull, muted _thump. _I was _much_ too busy to think about the sound. I was thinking about Mako Island, about the stories my mother had told me about the place. About the beautiful glow on the silvery speckle in the sink…

I heard some muffled sound from somewhere else that sounded like the gurgling of a stream. I grinned. It was relaxing. Then I saw a blurry yellow-ish big speckle move in front of my eyes. I waved it away with my numb hand. It must have grabbed onto me and shook me because I felt a little bit of pressure at no specific point on my arms and then the walls were spinning even faster. I frowned. I tried to look through the haze to see what was attacking me. _Amy,_ I thought. It was Amy.

Before I could have realized that she was my sister and I didn't want to hurt her, my brain automatically shoved what I had just remembered right back there along with some other unimportant memories. Amy made some more gurgling noises that I assumed were her talking. I spoke back to her.

"Mako is calling." That came out sharp as a knife in my ears. It was melodic and beautiful, mesmerizing almost. It was the only thing that wasn't muted and dull in my mind. Even the thought of my beautiful Mako was dull. I had never been there before, but for some reason it was more appealing to me than anything else in the world. Just to hear the refreshing sound of my tinkling voice, I giggled. It was so much fun. I giggled some more.

I felt more pressure on my shoulder as Amy probably tried to get me to stay where I was. There were more gurgling noises, but I pushed her away and walked out the door. Walking was a funny feeling; my feet were numb and the walls dashed by me, blurry and unfamiliar. I was unsure where I even was, I just felt this strong pull to this one direction. I could still hear faint gurgling noises getting louder and louder behind me and my hand automatically thrust forward and twisted -probably turning a doorknob, I was too numb to be sure-as I felt my feet feel more pressure on them as I ran.

I didn't stop until I felt something odd- something not numb and blurry. A smell. It was the smell of the sea. As I neared the smell, everything became more clear and precise. The crystal clear beauty of the water was so amazingly alluring I felt under a spell. Unfortunately, other things became more clear and precise too.

"JEAN!" called out a voice behind me. I was extremely annoyed by the sound. All I wanted to do was stare at the water. I turned slowly to see the same blurry figure, this time a little clearer. I narrowed my eyes. This girl was interrupting my staring.

I whipped my head back around and dove into the crystal water beneath me. It was so refreshing and cool, but still felt wrong with these heavy, numb legs on me. Once my graceful tail had formed, I grinned. That was better. Now everything was perfect. Nothing, and I mean _nothin_g was bothering me. I had never felt this care free…

I sped off into the blue, towards the intense pull I felt. I popped above the surface in about 30 seconds to see the island only a few kilometers away. It really was as beautiful as I imagined. No, it was _more_ beautiful.

I dove back under and in less than another minute I was at the small underwater entrance my mother had described to me. I was so happy that being a mermaid for this long enabled me to get here faster.

I slowly brought myself to the surface as I took in the almost _too_ precise features of the glittering blue cave. And it really was glittering. The sparkle of the cave was almost blinding, but I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I was probably there just floating in the glorious cave for at least an hour before something came into my precious cave that ruined the moment.

"Jean!" panted Amy as she looked around the cave amazed. "Wow..." She shook her head. "Come on Jean, we need to go home!" She leaned forward to grab my hand but I darted backwards. I didn't want to leave. Ever.

"No!" I shouted. You could feel the heat in the air as I balled my fists in anger. Suddenly, a lightning bolt flew into the cave through the top of the dormant volcano and struck the ground right next to Amy. She shrieked and jumped away. I could feel the power and I loved it. I laughed menacingly and shot another bolt this time even closer to Amy. She looked scared. It gave me even more power. I shot a few more bolts to the ground as Amy darted around the cave, trying not to get hurt. But her efforts were futile.

The last bolt I struck fell so close to her it sent her sailing off her feet and crashing into the rock wall of the cave. She didn't move again. I let the heat of the cave remain for a few seconds, and then decided to concentrate on bigger opponents. I let my glorious power stretch out onto the land away from Mako Island, and then let lightning bolts strike every now and then. It was probably chaos there, but I didn't care. It was peaceful in this cave; nothing bothered me. Not even my sister, in a lump by one of the rock walls. She was already starting to fade into the brightly lit sparkling cave. I floated on my back and let the shining sparkles take over. Everything started fading to blackness with the glittering lights, even the loud but calming bolts of thunder in the background. I closed my eyes as I let myself drift away…

**(A/N: So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I tried to get this one up pretty quick too. In fact, it would have gone up sooner but there was a power outage where I live and I had to restart some of the chapter. It really bugged me. Anyways, I hope you liked the little change of perspective. We haven't gotten to hear Jean's POV yet, so I thought this would be interesting. Which reminds me… Shout out to my friend who gave me the last name Holm! The next chapter will be in Blake's POV as he worries about the girls and tries to find them. I'm just going to say that ONE of them will get moonstruck… can you guess who? ;-P Well I mentioned Snow White and the Huntsman on here- even though it hasn't come out yet- and **_**of course**_** I don't own it. I also don't own Doritos and I **_**obviously**_** don't own Rikki's character, because I don't own H2O. If I did there DEFINETELY would be a 4****th**** season by now. Oh yeah and I would have persuaded Claire Holt not to leave. And if this chapter was a little choppy then I'm sorry; I tried. :-) This also might not make a lot of sense to some people, and, just to clear this up, the longer people are mermaids the faster they can swim, and mermaids' powers are greater than just the descendants of mermaids that didn't inherit the mermaidness. If this sort of confused you, I'm sorry. :-) So, hope you enjoyed and REMEMBER TO REVIEW PEOPLE! Oh yeah thanks to mochimochi32 again for reviewing- sort of- again. It means a lot that you think that! :-D So Thanks everyone, and have a great Memorial Day!)**


	17. Blake Christopher POV Nervous

*Blake Christopher*

I paced back and forth in my bedroom, counting each step to calm my nerves. _1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7…_

Who am I kidding? I'm about to rip a pillow apart I'm so nervous! But you can't blame me. After all, last time it was a full moon, my girlfriend- or, soon-to-be girlfriend- attacked me and ran away to Mako Island with her friends leaving me confused and wondering what the heck was going on. So you can safely bet that I am _not_ looking for a repeat this time around.

I checked my watch for the 50th time that night. The moon would be up any second. I nervously paced a few more minutes before going to my window and looking through the screen, making sure there weren't any wandering mermaids on the loose. There weren't, but that didn't ease my nerves.

Since the pacing wasn't working, I tried thinking about Lainey as I sat down on my bed. She always calms me down in stressful situations, so maybe if I pictured her here, it would calm me down. It was sort of working, I could tell.

Thinking of Lainey brought me memories of just the other day when we were in her bedroom and I had found one of her notebooks on top of her pillow. I turned it over and on the cover was my name written over and over and over again. I actually counted the number of times and I still remember the number. 72. I hold that number in my memory like a security blanket.

I checked my watch again. It was time. I shot out of my bed and peeked through the window. There it was. The full moon. I realized I had started to sweat. I turned on my fan as I watched out of the window, hoping that no one would come out of that yellow shingled house down the road. I was praying for it, actually.

Again, I thought of going over there, but then remembered Lainey's words. _"Sorry Blake, no boys allowed,"_ or something along those lines. I knew I shouldn't, but I felt just so tempted to go over there and make sure everything's alright.

I tried lying down on my bed again and counted my breaths. 1... … 2… … 3… … 4… 5… 6… 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 12 131415161718… I stopped counting when I realized I was hyperventilating. I creased my forehead as I just lay there in bed. I felt like I was going to explode from all of this nervousness. I waited there for probably another hour before the first bolt of lightning came.

I fell out of bed when it struck and hit my head on my dresser. "OW!" I complained as I looked around the room. I concluded the power was out when I saw my blinking alarm clock. I worriedly ran to the window but saw no mermaid outside of Bella's house causing this. I sat down right there. If I thought I was worried before, I was ten times more worried now.

CRACK! BOOM! The air was getting hot.

I thought of Lainey, Nicole, and Bella huddled together screaming their heads off in the dark without any moonlight at all and that ten times more became twenty times more. I bit my lip as I thought of what I should do. Should I go over there to make sure they're okay? I told them to go to bed right away, but they probably didn't listen to me. So if I_ did_ go over there to see if they're okay, one of them would probably see the moon as I opened the door and then I might as well just stay here if that'll happen. But still…

CRACK! BOOM! I shuddered as the lightning shook the structure of my house. I was getting more and more nervous every second, until I couldn't stand it anymore.

I walked down the stairs quietly- which wasn't very necessary, since hardly anything could be heard over the thundering booms ricocheting off the walls of our house- and slipped through the door without a sound. I looked both ways before crossing the street (safety first) and made my way to Bella's house.

I made it to the door right before a bolt of lightning hit the ground literally 20 feet away from me. I heard the girls screaming inside, and then the panting as it wore off.

I yanked open the door to see Lainey looking the other way, shielding herself, and Nicole closing her eyes tightly shut. Bella was half asleep on the couch and opened her eyes to see who it was. Nicole and Lainey were screaming.

"Guys, it's just…" That's all I got out before someone- probably Nicole- hit me on the head with something hard and metal. I slumped to the floor, accidentally knocking the door open farther as Lainey and Nicole were still looking away. Nicole probably was just scared and didn't know it was me.

The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was Bella staring outside the door, her pupils huge and a familiar haze over them.

**(A/N: So this one was pretty short, I know, but hey, it happens. ;-P Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope this chapter didn't seem too rushed to you! The next one will be up soon, I'm pretty sure, so stay tuned and please review! I would LOVE you if you did! Oh, that reminds me… THANK YOU SO MUCH DBH FOR GIVING ME HOPE! ;-D Well, anyways, thanks for reading and feel free to message me telling me your story. I love reading other stories too! By-by!)**


	18. Lainey Woods POV Its Getting Hot in Here

*Lainey Woods*

_A HALF AN HOUR BEFORE BLAKE ARRIVED…_

I was breathing heavily after the particularly loud BOOM noise from outside. I looked at the little battery powered watch we had found. It read 12:33. I groaned. I would never get to sleep, will I?

Bella yawned and startled me. It's been pretty quiet in here besides our occasional screams and the storm outside, so I jumped a bit when I heard a different noise. Bella looked around with sleepy eyes and stood up. Nicole and I raised our eyebrows at her.

"I think I'll try to get some sleep," said Bella with another yawn as she plopped down onto the couch, just as another lightning bolt struck. Nicole and I jumped, but Bella didn't even flinch.

"How can you sleep right now?" asked Nicole, baffled.

"Besides," I added on. "It would be best if we stuck together."

Bella patted the seat next to her. "Be my guest."

I rolled my eyes. "No thank you." I was just fine sitting on my sleeping bag with blankets wrapped around me, dimly lit candles surrounding us and a bowl of cold popcorn in front of me. I was just fine.

Bella closed her eyes and snuggled into the couch. There was another boom from outside as she grabbed a pillow and stuck it underneath her head. I shuddered. I hated thunderstorms.

15 minutes later, Bella was already asleep and Nicole and I were wrapping our arms around each other as we tried not to yelp each time in thundered. Usually, I wasn't this scared of thunderstorms, even though I hated them. But I guess usually I wasn't stuck in someone else's house at night with no one else around but me and my two best friends.

And it wasn't just that. The lightning was strangely loud and almost made the walls shake. Even when I was expecting the lightning it still shocked me.

I tried thinking about Blake to calm myself down. He was always there for me when I need to be calmed down. I just needed to pretend that we were in a candle lit restaurant instead of a candle lit, powerless house, eating delectable lobster instead of cold popcorn, and that Blake was just going to the bathroom down the hall instead of being stuck in his house, far away from where I was... I sighed as I gave up the impossible. I've never been good at imagery anyways.

I fiddled with the silky fabric of my pajamas as another bolt struck the ground. This time the boom was even louder. I practically jumped into Nicole's arms as I let go of the silk and screamed my head off. Nicole screamed even louder than me.

Suddenly, there was a creak as someone was obviously trying to come in. Everything next came so fast, probably in the time span of about 5 seconds. I shut my eyes tightly as I screamed. I heard the door burst open and someone come in. I heard a little bit of a familiar voice but was too freaked out to really pay any attention. After all I couldn't even look, otherwise I'd see the moon.

I heard Bella groan behind me as she started to wake up. I prayed silently for her not to see the moon, for her to remember where we were and that she would remember to shut her eyes. I then heard the _bang_ of something metal against something, and _oomph_ as whoever it was fell to the ground. Bella was silent behind us. I was afraid to know what that meant.

I could hear the door creak as someone closed it. I peeked through my eyelashes then breathed a sigh of relief as I saw there wasn't any moonlight coming in. When I started breathing again, I looked around to make sure we were okay. I was fine, Nicole was still shutting her eyes tight and holding the metal popcorn bowl she had obviously hit the person with, and Bella was just sitting on the couch, staring at the door. I surveyed her for a moment as she changed her eyesight to floor and stared hard, as if she was concentrating on the brown carpet. I just shook my head. I'll never understand her.

Then I turned my attention to the mysterious person who had showed up at Bella's door. I sure hoped it wasn't the mailman getting in extra shifts or something. How embarrassing would that be?

But as I looked and the lump on the ground, I realized the figure was familiar. _He_ was familiar. My breath caught in my throat as I realized who it was. _Blake._

"Blake!" I shouted as I ran to him and shook him. "Blake, wake up!" He just wobbled around as I shook him. I set my head down on his chest to make sure he was breathing. I wasn't sure that I was doing it right though. I only know from what I've seen on TV.

"He's not dead, Lainey," said Nicole as she rolled her eyes. "I don't think you can kill someone with a popcorn bowl. But guessing by how hard I hit him… I can assure you that he won't be up anytime soon."

I groaned as I sank to the floor and crossed my arms. How come we always ending hurting up Blake? I hated full moons! Just hated them! I turned to look at Blake and focused on his honey colored bangs and the banged up forehead behind it. He looked pretty bad, with a golf ball sized lump on his forehead. A bump that huge wouldn't go down for probably another few weeks. I poked it with my finger and purplish bruises spotted. I winced. Yep. It was bad.

"Lainey…" said Bella slowly. I turned away from my beautiful boyfriend to look at her. She was still staring at the floor. "Nicole… We need to go."

"What do you mean?" asked Nicole as she tossed the popcorn bowl into the air. I took it when she caught it and kept it away from her. We didn't need any more injuries, accidental or otherwise.

"Mako." said Bella simply, without changing her facial expression as she stared long and hard at the carpeted floor. "We need to go to Mako."

Nicole and I both groaned at the same time. We knew exactly what this meant.

"Bella," I said slowly. "We can't go to Mako when…"

"I can go whenever I want," she interrupted. She said everything as if it was a fact you could look up in the encyclopedia. She didn't change positions as she continued to talk in her monotone voice. "Let's go now."

"How about… no?" answered Nicole very matter-of-factly.

"Yes." Bella stood up but kept her gaze on the floor. Then, in one millisecond, her gaze shot to the door. It was almost creepy as she glided over to the door and set her hand on the doorknob with no worry that we were going to stop her. It was the walk of the winning side of a war when they were outnumbering their opponents. It was the walk of the confident. And to be honest, it totally creeped me out.

"No," I said calmly as I set my hand on hers on the doorknob. But I immediately flinched away. "Ow!" I exclaimed. Her hand was hot! She continued to open the door but Nicole slammed into the door, shutting it again. Bella didn't try to stop her. She knew she would get out. As I watched her, I realized that her eyes had this funny quality to them. There was this haze over her eyes that were now… blue? I wasn't seeing things… they really were! A sort of creepy, icy blue. I shuddered. I felt cold looking at them. But after looking at them a while longer, I started to get that familiar feeling of numbness overcome me, like when I look at a full moon. I quickly looked away.

"Bella, you don't want to go outside." Now Nicole was trying to manipulate her? Nice. Real nice. Like that was going to work."So let's go back and eat some popcorn…" She glanced at the popcorn that had been strewn all over the carpet when she had smacked Blake in the head. I stifled a giggle.

Bella didn't move, but I felt something change. I immediately looked up. I wasn't sure why. Then I got my answer. I heard several bolts of the same loud lightning strike very close to the house. The air was started to get really hot and I could hear water steaming in the kitchen, even though the electricity wasn't running. I started to sweat. I looked over to Nicole and saw she was sweating too. I exchanged a glance with her that confirmed my suspicion-Bella was definitely causing this.

Soon, I started to feel really parched. My mouth was getting dry and itchy. It was suddenly all I could think about. I grabbed my throat as if I could cool the burn from the outside. It didn't help. "Stop," I croaked to Bella, but she kept her fists balled at all times. My vision started to get blurry as the room got hotter and hotter. I couldn't hear anything over the steaming water and thundering bolts that were coming much more consistently. There were black dots swarming over my eyes. Nicole fell to the ground, and I came soon after. I felt lightheaded and could hardly see when Bella opened the door and left, bringing with her the heat.

As soon as the room was cooled down enough, which was about five minutes after Bella left, I ran to the kitchen with a candle, Nicole right behind me, as we found a jug of distilled water in the fridge. We took turns guzzling down the liquid until it was gone. I was still thirsty, but it was bearable now. I took a few deep breaths as I looked around and groaned. Not only was I tired, thirsty, and scared, but there wasn't even a way to catch Bella now.

I sat down right there next to the island in the kitchen as I thought of Bella running to Mako Island, causing all sorts of trouble I'm sure we'll hear about in the morning. I sighed and crawled to the living room where I sunk into my sleeping bag. It was official. I hated full moons.

**(A/N: Okay, so I noticed that this was sort of choppy. :/ Oh well. Sorry if it took longer than I thought to upload the next chapter! I was going to get it up sooner but since school is over next Wednesday I've had soooooo many things that are due this Friday for me. Oh wait, I mean, tomorrow. I'm also sorry if you got confused on how it jumped back and forth between times. It might have gotten a little confusing. Anyways, special shout-out to mochimochi32 again for reviewing AGAIN! :-D :-D I love it when people review! So remember! REVIEEEEEEEEEEWWWW! :-D Well, I hope you liked this chapter! Not sure when the next one will be up… it's about Bella coming back from Mako in the morning and remembering everything up to when she was underneath the moon pool and sees another tail. She's gonna have a flash back and stuff and then she's gonna tell her friends, bla bla bla… but to find out who it was, Lainey volunteers to HYPNOTIZE Bella! Exciting! So that one might be up soon. Maybe. Maybe not. Might be up sooner if I get more reviews…. ? LOL, jk, but it would be nice to get reviews. Ciao!)**


	19. Bella Edwards POV Hypnosis

*Bella Edwards*

Finally,_ I thought as I drifted out of the house and glided towards the ocean only a few feet away from me now. I was so close._

_ The thunderbolts seized as I dove into the cool embrace of the water. _Aaah,_ I thought as I melted into the ocean. My tail formed and I immediately shot towards Mako Island. Mako was the only thing important then._

_ As I approached the small opening to the cave, I froze as I felt the presence of another mermaid in the cave. I peeked and I was right- there was a golden tail floating in the pool. I cocked my head in curiosity as I slowly approached her, everything fading to black…_

I opened my eyes. "Sorry guys," I told Lainey and Nicole who were waiting with expectant faces the next morning. Blake was holding an ice pack to his forehead, not really paying attention to the little scene over here. "But I can't remember anything else." They sighed in frustration.

They weren't the only ones frustrated. I had woken up this morning on the dock with a monstrous headache and, remembering the storm from last night, went back to my house to see Blake knocked out unconscious by the door and Nicole and Lainey fast asleep in their sleeping bags. I had woken them up and asked what happened. Their explanations triggered a memory and I explained to them the other tail I had saw in the pool. The problem was, neither of them got moonstruck last night.

"Can't you try again?" asked Nicole. I rolled my eyes. "You've been moonstruck before Nicole," I explained to her. "And you didn't remember a bit! You guys are lucky I remembered as much as I have."

"True true," she replied as she sat back in her seat. Lainey was deep in thought.

"Lainey?" I snapped my fingers in front of her face a few times. She looked at me and blinked. "What?" she replied. "Sorry, I was thinking."

"About…" I waited for her to elaborate.

"I just don't understand who could have been there."

I rolled my eyes again. "That's what we're trying to find out dummy!"

She gave me a "really?" look and explained. "I know, Einstein, I was just wondering… you know how we suspected Jean as a mermaid? And when we mentioned the full moon, Amy ran away? Maybe Amy wasn't as truthful as she looked."

"So you're thinking… that Jean _is_ a mermaid?" I asked.

"Or maybe even Amy was a mermaid," said Nicole, making a good point.

Lainey nodded. "That's what I was trying to think about."

"Do you think we should question them?" I asked.

Lainey shook her head. "No way. Too risky."

"Then how will we ever find out?" asked Nicole desperately. I knew the idea of another mermaid bugged her.

"That was the other thing I was thinking about," said Lainey slowly, obviously hesitating to approach the subject. "I had an idea but…"

"Well let's try it!" I practically shouted. I hated not knowing things that I've done. I feel like a victim of amnesia or something.

"It's just that…"

"Come on!" said Nicole impatiently. "Just say it! Do it! Whatever… just… find this thing out!"

"Okay!" said Lainey as she gave up. "I thought we could try hypnotism." She looked at us nervously, probably dreading our reactions.

I didn't get it at first. "So… someone would hypnotize me?" I said slowly, not sure if I was okay with where things were going.

"Me," said Lainey, correcting me. "I would be the one to hypnotize you. My mom once took a college course on it. She used it on me once and it was actually quite nice."

"So it really works?" I asked.

"Of course," she started, but Nici interrupted.

"So let's do it now!" she said, already going up the stairs to my room.

I glanced nervously at Nicole, and then at Lainey. "It's not going to hurt or anything… right?"

"Of course," she assured me. I sighed but agreed. After all, nothing bad could happen.

But I felt some déjà vu as I thought that. The last time I thought that to myself, I became a mermaid.

10 minutes later, we were in my room with my CD player on. There was nice, relaxing waves playing on the CD that sounded very real. Lainey had just printed off step-by-step instructions and was getting me ready on my bed. She had told me to lie down and to get comfortable. I felt nervous even though she kept assuring me that the only thing that would take place would be helping me to remember last night. Still, I knew Lainey and Nicole, and if I didn't know any better, they were up to something. But of course, I don't know any better. Otherwise, why would I be letting them do this?

"Now," said Lainey in a very relaxing voice as she put her hand on my arm. "Relax all your muscles and close your eyes. Make sure you're comfortable." I did as she instructed and then lay there waiting. "Now tense your muscles for 10 seconds." It felt silly but I tried to forget that as I tensed up my muscles as she counted to 10. "Now relax for 10." I did as she said. "Now tense all of your muscles for another 10 seconds." I did, and then I heard someone leaving the room. Probably Nicole. She was probably laughing and Lainey must have signaled her to leave.

Lainey must have felt I was distracted because she said in a commanding voice, "You cannot hear anything other than my voice. Nod gently if you understand." I hesitated before nodding gently and tuning out the waves in the background. It left me in this peaceful state. I didn't mind it.

"Now take a deep breath in… and out…" I followed her command. This was actually pretty relaxing. "Now imagine that you're in a white cottage by the beach. You're looking out onto the water and you can see the waves rolling in… and out…" I tensed up a bit thinking about water and how it affects me, but Lainey reassured me. "There is no one else around. Not even me. My voice to you is just your thoughts in the back of your mind. You cannot hear me, but you can clearly understand and will do as I say." Even her voice faded to the background as I was at the beach.

She must have been commanding me to do something by telling me because I felt so relaxed on the beach I couldn't move. It was like someone else was moving me.

I was walking on the beach, the waves rolling by and swirling around my toes and feet. I didn't turn into a mermaid, so it wasn't a panicky action. I felt totally at peace. And with each wave that rolled away from the shore, I became more and more relaxed. Surely Lainey was telling me to feel this way, although I wasn't quite sure, since I couldn't hear her. I was in a trance.

Suddenly, I was in a black room with ten stair steps leading down into a shining white light. There was a faint voice in the background, a soft whisper. It sounded sort of like Lainey's voice, but it was so light I couldn't believe I could hear it. The voice was whispering, "With every step down these stairs, your body will become heavy and even more relaxed." I started walking down the steps, realizing that the voice was right. I was very relaxed. It started to whisper again. "Your eyelids are becoming heavy as you reach the bottom." I reached the last step and felt very relaxed and heavy. I was sure once I took that last step I would fall asleep and collapse.

When I did reach the last step, I _did_ collapse- and fell right into the white light. I felt a very light _thump_, as if I had fallen on a bed of feathers. I looked around but saw nothing. All there was a bright white light all around me. I felt my eyes drift as they closed. I heard the whisper again, this time saying, "Now open your eyes." I tried, but I couldn't. "Good," said the faint whisper that was seeming to fade into the background. "This is how it should be. Now let yourself fall into a restful state as we proceed…"

I heard someone snap their fingers as I opened my eyes. I blinked a few times, not sure where I was. I slowly leaned forward to see Lainey, Nicole, and Blake breathing hard. Nicole and Blake were on the floor panting. Lainey was on her knees and put her hand down as she was obviously the one who snapped her fingers to get me out of the trance. I pinched myself just to make sure I wasn't still hypnotized. I winced at the pain (I had forgotten I was wearing fake nails) and stood up, wobbling a bit before falling back down onto the bed. "Woah," I said as I started to feel dizzy. The room was also pretty hot. I wasn't sure why.

Lainey groaned as she stood up and pushed me back onto the bed with a slight push on my shoulder. She mouthed the word "Rest".

Then I remembered why we had done hypnosis in the first place. I felt a lump in my throat as I spoke. "Who?" My voice was barely audible. I cleared my throat, which was surprisingly hard to do by the way. Maybe it was because I had just been so relaxed for who knows how long. I couldn't even remember most of the hypnotism. Then I spoke just a bit louder. "Who?" I asked.

Blake looked up at me form the ground. "Jean," he said as he took in deep breath.

I raised my eyebrows. "O-kay," I said as I took in their faces. I didn't really understand what they were so worked up about. I mean, we had thought that Jean was a mermaid before; why were they so shocked now? "So?" I asked.

Nicole was still silent as Lainey raised her head to look at me too. "There's… more…" she said hesitantly.

The lump in my throat returned as I dreaded for the worst.

**(A/N: Okay well I FINALLY got this chapter up! PHEW! I had sort of a writer's block. In fact, I still have it. So ideas would be **_**soooooo**_** great! Please! I definitely need some ideas. This is a matter of life or death people! In other news though, it's SUMMER BABY! And do you know what that means? FASTER UPDATES! I think. Sorta. Well, you see I have this show on YouTube coming out soon called Just a Drop- check it out my channel is SerenSplash989 and my friend's channel sambofrog who's helping me- and I might be a bit busy with that. But don't worry, I won't forget about you guys! I really love this story but it might be a while until my next chapter since I've decided to do some thinking about the plot of the story. So far I've been just going with it but I think I should plan it out some more. Oh, also, I know in this chapter Bella was hypnotized and since I'm no pro at hypnotism or anything, this is probably not exactly how hypnotism works. So no, you CANNOT use this on your siblings to make them do your chores because it probably won't work. And if you were confused as to why suddenly Bella was awake and the others were shocked, it was because Bella was so deep in a trance that when Lainey asked her to tell her what happened the night before she didn't even know she was answering questions. Oh yeah, and, you know, Lainey and Nicole **_**might**_** have played a little trick on Bella… you never know. ;-) The next chapter will probably be in Nicole's POV, and then one in Amy's, then a very short one in Bella's, and so on. But again, I still need to plot this out so I'm not positive with anything yet. So if it takes a while for the next chapter, sorry! Well I hoped you liked this chapter and don't forget to favorite and review! Speaking of reviews… thank you SO much to Gabbystyles8, mochimochi32, and h2olover for reviewing! It means SO MUCH to me! Thank you guys, I LOVE YOUUU! ;-P Oh yeah and mochimochi32- I hope you enjoy your little dance! Thanks! Love y'all! Bu-bye!)**


	20. Nicole Paige POV Bella's Hypnosis

*Nicole Paige*

I had left the room when Lainey started because it was just too funny. I was about to pee my pants. I'm totally serious.

I walked downstairs to meet a groaning Blake, the ice pack still plopped on his forehead where I had hit him with the metal bowl. I winced as I looked at the humongous lump on his forehead. I noticed that the ice pack was starting to melt, so I sat down next to him.

"Here," I said as I re-froze the pack with my power. He breathed a sigh of relief as he pressed the coolness onto his bulging forehead. The lump was this gross purple-y color with yellow blotches on it.

"Thanks," he said. Then he gazed towards the stair steps that led up into Bella's room. "I wonder how the hypnotism is going."

"Well I had to come downstairs because I was trying so hard not to laugh." I plucked a piece of popcorn kernel out of his hair and tossed it into the garbage bin.

"Cool." He walked to the fridge with the cold pack in one hand and opened it. I walked over to grab something too.

I looked around before I spotted a bruised apple. I grabbed that and threw it into the garbage bin. "That kind of looked like your forehead, Blake." I chuckled and grabbed a carton of orange juice and a cup from the cupboard. Then I grabbed a spoon from a drawer.

"What are you doing?" asked Blake. "I don't think I've ever seen someone drink orange juice with a spoon."

"Who says I'm drinking it?" I filled the glass with orange juice and then stuck the spoon halfway into the drink. Then I positioned my hand above the glass to freeze it. With a quick pull, my orange popsicle slid out easily.

Blake looked impressed. "Smart," he commented. I froze at his words. _Smart._ Hardly anyone has ever called me smart. I licked my popsicle slowly as I realized something. Becoming mermaids not only changed how water affects us, but it changed our personalities. Bella, I realized, became more outgoing and daring. Reckless, even. I became more smart and careful. And Lainey… well… she became more… dumb. But she also became more of a leader, which is definitely a good thing.

Once I was finished with my popsicle, I returned the juice back to the fridge and Blake spoke up.

"Want to see how it's going up there?" He pointed towards the ceiling, so I assumed he meant upstairs.

I shrugged. "Sure." I made a silent promise to myself that I wouldn't laugh as I walked up the steps.

When we came in the room, I could hear Lainey's ridiculous monotone voice whispering things to Bella. "Good. This is how it should be. Now let yourself drift into a restful state as we proceed…" She was quiet for a moment before she turned to us. "She's in the trance. She's ready." She told us. I grinned as I walked over.

"Why don't I test it?" I asked innocently. She rolled her eyes but let me try. "Now," I said to the unconscious Bella in the same monotonous voice that Lainey used. "Every time that you hear the word 'Smoothie', I want you to hiss like a cat. Do you understand?" She nodded gently. It was a little creepy, but I tried not to think about it. Otherwise I would start laughing and ruin the whole thing. "When I clap my hands, it will be true. Do you understand?" She nodded again so I clapped my hands. Nothing seemed to change. To make sure it worked I leaned in close and whispered, "Smoothie". She hissed through her teeth and I started laughing uncontrollably. Lainey gave me a hard stare so I stopped and quickly glanced at Bella to make sure she hadn't woken up. But she was so deep in a trance that she was fine.

I stepped away and sat by Blake as Lainey proceeded. "Now," she said. "I want you to imagine yourself going through the underwater channel to the moon pool. You swim in, and you see a golden tail. When you reach the surface, whose face do you see?"

"I don't know," said Bella in a creepy voice. I got the chills. "Her face is covered by her hair and everything is so sparkly and bright in the cave. I can't focus on anything." I frowned. That must have been the effects of the full moon.

"What _can_ you see?" asked Lainey.

"I see the full moon bright, clear and sharp in the sky above me," responded Bella. "There are glittering crystals all around the cave. So beautiful. There is the mermaid next to me, giggling, and a figure that isn't as sharp as the rest of the cave and the mermaid, in a lump on the cave floor a few feet away from us."

"Look closer. Do you know who the person on the floor is?" asked Lainey.

"No," said Bella. "But she's human. Her essence is very dull to me, so she must not belong in Mako Island. She needs to go." Her fists balled up and the room starts to get hot. I turned nervously to Lainey. "She must be mad. Calm her down!" I told her. She nodded to me.

"The girl is fading into the cave," said Lainey as she tried to calm her down. "You cannot see her, feel her, hear her, or even smell her. It's just you and the mermaid in the cave, the full moon glowing onto you both." Bella smiled as her fists unclenched. I breathed a sigh of relief as the room returned to its original temperature. That brought memories of the night before where Bella heated us so much we passed out, and I shuddered at the memory. "Look at the girl," said Lainey commandingly. "Really look at her. Look at how her hair falls over her face. Keep on focusing at her until you can see her face. Keep focusing. Keep looking. And then give me a name." Lainey waited. I waited. Blake even waited with his throbbing headache and aching forehead. And then we waited some more. A few minutes went by, and Bella was still silent. I was about to say something about it to Lainey, but she shushed me. I frowned and sat back in Bella's chair next to her desk.

Another few minutes went by before Bella opened her mouth. We all leaned forward anxiously as we waited for her to tell us who the mermaid was.

"Jean," she whispered. I raised my eyebrows and let out a whistle. We were right. Amy had lied to us.

"Do you think Amy lied to us?" asked Blake as if he could read my thoughts. I shrugged and then noticed the room getting hotter again. I sighed and turned to Bella to see what was wrong now.

Her fists were clenched together as she spoke through gritted teeth. "Amy," said Bella. "She's woken up. She's coming towards the pool. The moon…" The room was getting _really _hot. I was starting to sweat. Not just from the heat either. What if Amy had gone into the pool…?

As if to answer my silent question, Bella spoke up again. "She didn't come in the pool. She just wants to get Jean out of the pool. But now she's seen me. She's telling me to leave. I. Don't. Want. To. Leave." The room was getting really hot. I grabbed a notebook from Bella's desk and started to fan myself with it as I spoke to Lainey. "What's going on?"

"She's getting mad," whispered Lainey. "Don't distract her."

"Distract her?" I yelled. "It's fricken hot in here!" That did it.

Bella started screaming as she jammed her fists into tight balls. The room went from very hot to unbearably hot. It was even worse than last night. My vision got blurry right away and black dots were squirming around my eyes. I felt like I was being boiled from the inside. I started choking as I fell to the floor, Blake right behind me. Lainey kept her ground as she sat on her knees dizzily.

"GET OUT NOOOOW!" yelled Bella, obviously talking about Amy. "We DON'T want you here! You're not one of us!" My stomach started to churn as the temperature became hotter and static built up inside of me. I reached my hand forward to grab Bella's chair to get back on it, but I was shocked when I touched the metal chair. Literally. A spark jumped from my finger to the chair and I jolted backwards. The room started to spin as I lost consciousness.

Then I realized the room stopped increasing in heat. _Was there a limit to her powers?_ I thought, although I seriously doubted it. Even though I was on the brink of being unconscious, I looked up to see Bella breathing heavily and her fists flat by her sides. I thanked God as the room cooled down. I had no doubt in my mind that Bella wouldn't have killed us right there.

"What is the boy doing here?" asked Bella. At first I thought maybe she had woken up, had amnesia or something and didn't remember who Blake was but then I saw her still closed eyes. She must still be in her hypnotic state of what happened the night before. The thing was, what boy was she talking about then? Blake was unconscious the night before.

"Jean and I are hiding. He can't see us. I've never seen him before," Bella was worried, her brow creased. I had to admit that I was a little worried too. I turned to Lainey and Blake with a confused look on my face. They returned it.

"He found Amy and is taking her back to the mainland." Bella gasped. "He's seen the pool. He wants to check it out. Amy's warning him not to…" The room started to get hot again and I groaned, but decided not to aggravate her any more. Honestly this switching between hot and cold came so suddenly and dramatically I literally felt like I was going to throw up.

"He touched the pool. Jean and I are leaving so he doesn't see us." The room got hotter and I started panting again. This went on for a few more minutes until Lainey whispered, "When I snap my fingers, you will awaken from your trance." And she snapped her fingers.

Bella's eyes shot open as the room cooled down just a bit. It was still pretty hot. She looked confused as she looked down at Lainey, me, and Blake. She tried to get up but just wobbled around. "Woah," she said dizzily. Lainey softly pushed her back down onto the bed and mouthed something to her. Probably "Sleep" or "Rest" or something.

Then Bella said something. I wasn't sure what though. Her voice was crackly and seemed dry. No wonder. The room was hot and she had been so relaxed for such a long time. I wondered how much she remembered.

"Who?" She spoke up again. This time I heard her. I was going to answer but Blake did first.

"Jean," he said. Bella raised her eyebrows, then looked confused again. She was probably wondering why we were so shocked. "O-kay. So?" she asked.

"There's… more…" said Lainey as we began to explain the boy in the cave.

**(A/N: So this chapter is basically last chapter in the perspective of Nicole. The next chapter will be a very short one where Bella sort of thinks about what had happened while she goes to Lilly's. The chapter after that one though might be a little longer, and probably in Amy's perspective as she tries to help the girls without her sister's knowledge. Bella is trying to find the boy who was at Mako Island to make sure he didn't become a mermaid- or merman- while Lainey and Blake are trying to sort out their issues in between Blake trying to explain to his parents why he was missing the night before and came back with a big bruise on his head. Then, just to make matters worse, Nicole's parents find out about how Nicole and Lainey said they were allergic to chlorine and start to ask questions. They even try to test them for it but without Bella around- since she's looking for the mystery boy- they can't fake the rash. Oh yeah, and in the meantime, Amy is stuck in the middle between her sister's side of things and her new friend's side of things. In fact, her friends don't even know she told her sister about them! And, the cherry to the pie, Destiny is being a total brat, making everything more difficult. So the next chapter will definitely be chaotic. By the way the other chapter was supposed to be up sooner which is why this chapter is up already. Well, I hoped you liked the chapter and don't forget to favorite and review! Happy summer! 3 3 3 3)**


	21. Bella Edwards POV Smoothie

*Bella Edwards*

I sat in my bathtub as I listened to the song Dark Side by Kelly Clarkson from the radio.

_Everybody's got a dark side._

_Do you love me?_

_Can you love mine?_

_Nobody's a picture perfect,_

_But we're worth it,_

_You know that we're worth it!_

_Will you love me?_

_Even with my dark side?_

I tried to lose myself in the music but my regular old worries kept resurfacing. Or, not-so-regular worries. I mean, it's not like everyday I'm wondering about a mysterious boy that I met without his knowledge while I was in a semi-trance who might have become a mermaid/merman by touching a mystical pool after saving a friend whose sister knocked unconscious which I had just found out about using hypnosis.

…

Yeah, not your typical everyday worries. Not even close.

Honestly, I was also a little bit annoyed. I mean, the moon pool is _our_ special place, and some random dude comes in at the most convenient of times and just leaves out the way he came. Which I have no idea how he did that, since that stupid ledge is so freaking steep.

I let out a frustrated sigh as I sunk underneath the warm, bubbles of water and thrashed my tail to get comfortable. Even after a few months of being a mermaid I couldn't get used to my tail. It still felt like the 7th wonder of the world each time I transformed- even in the most inconvenient times.

I sighed again as I realized that the bath wasn't working as well as I had hoped. I took out the plug but didn't even bother to try to wait for it to empty. I used my power to immediately evaporate it before ending up in my clothes again.

I heard another song playing, In the Dark by DEV, on the radio, so I turned it up and hummed along.

_Tell me baby, if it's wrong…_

I whipped my head to my right as the bathroom door creaked open. My breath caught in my throat as my brother walked in.

"Woah!" he said as he covered his face, obviously thinking I was taking a bath and had interrupted me. After quickly making sure I had went in the bath fully clothed so that I had all my clothes on now, I said to Peter, "Don't worry, I'm done and fully clothed."

He let out a sigh of relief as he came in and uncovered his eyes. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay." I got out of the bath and made sure not to step on any little water droplets on the floor.

"I just came up to turn off the radio. It was pretty loud and I had thought maybe you had left it on or something,"

"Oh," I blushed. "Sorry if it was too loud."

He shrugged. "I honestly didn't care. Mom was the one who thought it was too loud. I like loud music."

I nodded. "Me too."

He looked at me weirdly. "Hey… why are you wearing clothes?

"Um… should I _not_ be wearing clothes or something?"

"No… but… you were just sitting in the bath wearing clothes. What's up with that?"

"Oh..." I looked at the tub and thought of how that might have seemed weird. I turned to him. "It's this new technique for… hydrophobic people. You're supposed to pretend you're in water so that you can get over your fear of it." I winced at how fake that sound. I needed to get good at lying on the spot.

"Okay," said Peter as he obviously didn't see past my lie. "Hope it works." He shrugged again and left the room. I actually like Peter. It's just his successfulness that gets to me.

I went to my room and, realizing I was still in my pajamas, walked over to my closet and opened the white doors. I looked around for a bit before deciding on some white cutoffs, a braided belt, a neon green cami and some matching flip flops. I have plain old cheap flip flops in almost every color that I get from walmart every now and then. It's more like a collection now.

After dabbing on some pink lipstick and grabbing my white fringe purse, I went downstairs.

"Hey mom," I said as I walked past her towards the door. "Bye mom."

"Hold on," she said as I sighed and turned around to face her. "Where are you going?"

"A place." My mom rolled her eyes.

"What kind of place?" I sighed. She was always getting into my business. But since I wasn't in the mood to have more stress on my shoulders, I didn't comment.

"I'm just going to Lilly's," I replied.

"Okay," she said, approving my decision. As soon as she spoke the word, I was heading for the door.

"Could you pick me up a smoothie while you're there?"

I opened up my mouth to say "Sure" but a hiss escaped my throat instead. I froze immediately.

"What?" My mom looked at me, confused.

I cleared my throat. "What I meant to say was, sure."

She looked at me with a worried expression on her face. "Okay honey. Just don't…"

I didn't hear the rest of it. I was out the door the second she said "okay".

When I reached Lilly's I met another girl, not Amanda since it was past 6:00, but some girl named "Danielle". **(A/N: Actually this was the name of the girl who I gave my order to at Panera bread LOL)**

"So, what smoothie?" she asked. Another hiss came out of my throat -to my total embarrassment-and she backed up. "Okay, I see that you aren't in the mood to have a smoothie then…" she started to walk away.

"No!" I said quickly. "Could I please have a strawberry banana boombox and a low fat mango paradise? Thanks." I was so embarrassed as realization hit. _Nicole._ I groaned.

After getting me the smoothie for my mom and me, I thanked her again, gave a pretty big tip, and left quickly. Let's just say I never came back to Lilly's again after 6, while Danielle was working there.

**(A/N: I said that this one was going to be short, so yeah. ;-) I mentioned In the Dark by DEV and Dark Side by Kelly Clarkson, which I obviously don't own. I mean why the heck would Kelly Clarkson or DEV be writing h2o fanfictions? Oh yeah I also mentioned Panera bread in the author note… don't own that either. Otherwise I'd be giving myself free low-fat strawberry smoothies every day for free. Yum… Anyways, I hope you liked the new chapter and don't forget to subscribe! YOLO!)**


	22. Amy Holm POV Chaos on the Coast

*Amy Holm*

**(A/N: Are you guys ready? This is the really chaotic one, as you could probably tell from the title. :-) Hope you enjoy! BTW this is while Bella is being hypnotized.)**

I groaned as the bright sunlight shone down onto my sensitive eyes. I shielded my face with my hand as I blinked a few times and slowly pushed myself up out of my covers of my silky bed.

Only I didn't push out of my covers. I felt sand underneath my hands as I tried to push myself up and I immediately bolted upright as I looked around in horror. I was on some sort of beach, and my hair as a mess up sand, snarls, and seawater.

"Finally!" I heard a male voice from behind me say. "She has awaken!" The mystery boy behind me let out fits of laughter as if me being stranded on some beach somewhere was funny. I turned around to look at him angrily, which was a very pathetic attempt for me. I'm not very good at looking menacing.

He was actually pretty cute, but definitely not my type. Really. I swear. His dark hair was sort of ragged and curly, and a little messy. His bright green eyes surrounded a suntanned face peeking out from underneath his chocolate bangs as his head bobbed up and down from laughter.

"Who are you and where the hell am I?" I tried to ask demandingly, but came out shaky and worried. I never have sworn before so I surprised myself.

"Calm down girl," he said as he rolled his eyes. I was furious but sort of scared at the same time. "Hi. I'm Alex." He held out his hand, and I stared at it until it dropped. He laughed a bit more. "You don't seem like the friendly type, blondey."

"I said, where am I?" He just laughed some more as I tried to get my fingers through my snarly hair.

"Look around pretty girl. Where does it look like we are? Disney Land?" he said as he was engulfed in laughter. I was very irritated and embarrassed but looked around anyways.

I was lying on a beach somewhere with a lot of jungle plants surrounding me. A few miles away, there was more land. It finally clicked.

"Mako Island?" I asked him.

"That what you call this place?" he asked as he looked around and shrugged while sifting the sand beneath him. I watched the little granules slip through his fingers. "They could've come up with a better name, if you ask me."

"Well, no one DID ask you." I mumbled. He started laughing again and I blushed.

"You're cute," he said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes, trying to look not at all scared or worried (I failed) and stood up. He followed.

"Where you going?" he asked cheerfully.

"Away from you," I said as I ducked under a leafy bush. Honestly I wasn't sure where I was going. I just felt like I should go this way. Although as I hiked through the lush layers of forest and exotic plants, I felt an extreme sense of déjà vu.

"Well, I'll come with!" he said as he jumped over a stump.

"That's not away from me you ding dong, that's getting closer!" I said aggravated as I started to walk faster. He walked faster too.

"You're being followed," he said in a singsong voice. I clenched my fists. He was being so annoying.

Even after 15 years of having mermaid powers, I forgot I had them at the moment. A small puddle started to heat up and Alex stepped in it.

"Ow!" he said in pain as the water seared his leg. "What the hell?" I couldn't help but giggle. He looked up at me annoyed. Finally. A taste of his own medicine.

If Jean was here, she wouldn't have hesitated to punch that annoying brat right in the face. He'd be unconscious by now. I'd love to do that, but it's not very lady-like, which wouldn't bother Jean…

My breath caught in my throat. _Jean_. It was then I remembered exactly what happened the night before.

"OH MY GOD!" I screamed, my eyes probably popping out of my skull.

"Finally you see my point of view!" said Alex, obviously referring to his burnt foot. I totally ignored him and started running towards the strange pool I had followed Jean to the night before.

"Wait up!" yelped Alex. I controlled myself this time from burning him and just ran faster. Who knew if Jean was in trouble…

When I reached the slippery hole I had found the night before that led into the beautiful cave, I jumped in without hesitation. Once I had reached the bottom, I ran in yelling "Jean! Jean!" I had expected to see her there, still in the daze from last night's full moon. But of course, nobody was in there. Why had I thought she would still be here?

"Woah!" I heard Alex fall into the cave and I panicked. I didn't think that he was supposed to be in here! This was a place for the mermaids, not him! Not even me! I was looking for my sister though, so that was different.

"Don't come in!" I yelled to him, but of course he didn't listen. I panicked as I expected him to come in and be like "WTF?", but of course, he surprised me. Again.

"Why not?" he asked as he came in. He didn't look shocked at all from the beauty and magic of the cave. It was so amazing I was sure that this place has something to do with mermaids. Maybe even the place that they… no… it couldn't be…

"Have you been here before?" I asked him puzzled. He laughed. It was so annoying.

"You're a funny chick," he said to me as he sat down and chewed on a piece of grass he must have picked up somewhere.

"Well have you?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You really don't remember?" He laughed again. "Man, you really were out cold!"

"What are you talking about?"

He chuckled a bit, antagonizing me very second, before explaining. "I found you in here last night talking to someone, but you were really dizzy, so I brought you to the beach, where you passed out. Oh and by the way, you talk in your sleep."

I ignored his sleep talking jibe and further questioned him. "Why would I pass out?" I asked. All I remembered was Jean being all weird in here. Actually, now that I think of it, I remember a sharp pain on my head. I poked around on my birds nest hair until I felt a throbbing pain. I prodded the small bump and felt a small bruise start to form. _Weird…_ I thought.

He shrugged. "Beats me." He got up and walked to the pool, then jumped in.

"Yeeow, this is cold!" he exclaimed with a shudder. But he was smiling the entire time. "Come on, wanna go for a swim?"

"With anyone _but_ you," I said as I blushed again. I wasn't very good around boys, especially cute ones. "Now get out of there!"

"Fine. Now can you help me get out?" he asked. I rolled my eyes but, being the nice person I am who would probably risk her life just to help a grandma cross the street, stretched my hand out to help him out. I should've known better.

He thrust his arm backwards, firmly gripping my hand, as I flipped into the pool. I sunk a good 3 feet before scrambling to get to the surface.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I screamed as I gasped for breath and a few tears trickled down my face. Second swear word. Wow. And in only one day. I turned to Alex in annoyance and hatred. This guy was trouble and I knew it. He made my annoyed and mean side come out of me, which I hardly ever see. No, scratch that, not even the biggest fight I've ever had with Jean brought this out. I NEVER see this side of me. "What was that for?" I was on the verge of crying.

He just laughed some more. "Come on, you can't say this isn't fun!" he said as he splashed some water at me. I splashed some back. "Well too bad. Cuz I am." I tried to get out of the pool by using the steps but he splashed some more water and I fell backwards into the pool again. By now I was seriously irritated.

I heated up the water around him as he looked around him in confusion. I took the opportunity to get out of the water. The only good thing that came from the water was the fact that it swept my hair back, tidying it up a bit.

Once I was on land, I tried to dry myself off discretely, without the Alex guy noticing. Then I noticed a small black hair binder on my wrist and used that to do my hair up into my favorite hairstyle: a simple ponytail.

Eventually that brat got out of the water too. "You're already dry?" he asked me.

"Yep," I said, exaggerating the "p" as I tried to climb back up out of the cave. It wasn't working.

He sighed and scaled the steep crevice. I was amazed, but didn't wonder how he did it for long. Before I knew it, he was pulling me up too.

As we walked back towards the beach (I had decided there was no getting rid of him) he started asking me the questions.

"So, I never really found out your name," he said as he plucked a long piece of grass from the jungle floor and whistled with it. I've never been able to do that.

"Amy," I said without looking at him.

He laughed some more. "Amy. Sounds like a nice, innocent name. Now that's not you at all, is it Amy?"

"You _don't_ know me," I said as I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arms around my waist, wishing I was anywhere but this stupid island, with anyone than this annoying Alex…

"Whatever you say Ames." He ducked underneath some palm fronds. "So what were you doing at that pool thing last night?"

I stopped for a brief second before continuing to walk towards the beach. "Why does it matter?" He chuckled. His over-happiness was starting to bug me. I am usually a very timid, shy person, but around this guy… I felt like beating him. And I'm never a violent person. So this was definitely a strange situation.

"Okay then crabby pants, I guess it doesn't matter." We made it to the beach and I started walking faster. He was jogging to keep up. "Where are you going?"

"Why do you care?" I growled.

"I was just wondering if you wanted a ride back to the mainland." I froze and turned around. "What?" I asked him in disbelief.

"You heard me. My boat's a bit that way, if you wanted a ride back."

"Then why did you keep me on this stupid island for so long then?" I exploded at him, a few more tears sprouting. He just laughed, not at all intimidated by me.

"Cuz it was fun," He started walking towards the boat as I muttered stuff I would say to him if I wasn't depending on him to take me home.

About 15 minutes later, we were on his boat going towards the mainland. I was sitting on the opposite side of the boat as he steered. As we neared land, he asked me where I'd like to be dropped off.

I thought about that one as a twirled a lock of blonde ponytailed hair around my pointer finger. I didn't really want this creep knowing where I live, so I probably should have him drop me off somewhere close to my home. Hmm… My thoughts turned to yesterday, which felt like forever ago, when I had met Lainey, Bella, Nicole, and Blake as Lilly's.

"Lilly's please," I told him. "Do you know where that is?" He rolled his eyes.

"Who doesn't?" He pulled up next to a small dock that was about 20 feet away from Lilly's. I quickly hopped out and left with a quick "Thanks".

I was about to walk into Lilly's as I saw Bella leaving. That gave me a memory of the night before… I had seen Bella in the pool too. I turned my target away from Lilly's to Bella, who was walking away from the smoothie shop with two smoothies stamped with the signature strawberry and giant purple "L" from Lilly's on the foam cups and a white fringe bag draped over her arm.

"Bella!" I yelled as I jogged over to her. She turned around as her eyes bulged.

"Amy…" she said, but I interrupted her.

"Are you okay?" I looked her over and she set down her bag and smoothies at a nearby bench as she creased her brow. "Woah woah, hold on here… Am _I_ okay? What about you?" Her expression was pretty bewildered, so I assumed that she was talking about me being stranded at Mako Island.

"I'm fine," I said to her as I started to fill her in on the happenings as we continued to walk towards her house to drop off a smoothie.

Another 15 minutes later, we were at Nicole's house, ringing the doorbell. Bella had also filled me in on the whole hypnotism and smoothie thing and after I got all the giggles out as I kept saying "smoothie" to her repeatedly, we decided to go over here, where Lainey and Blake were also.

After waiting another minute, the door opened slowly. A pretty exhausted looking Nicole stepped out. Or at least, she _was_ exhausted looking. As soon as she saw me she raised her eyebrows and straightened her back. "How…"

"We'll fill you in inside," said Bella as we were about to go in. But Nicole blocked her. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you," she said warningly.

"Why not?" I asked her, confused.

She sighed but opened the door fully, giving us an entrance into the air conditioned home. "Fine. Be my guest. Just be quiet."

We walked up to Nicole's room and even from downstairs I could hear muffled bickering, probably from Blake and Lainey, since they were the only ones here, or at least that's what Bella had told me. I wondered what was going on.

We went to the hallway outside of her room (which I only knew because Bella told me. I had never been here before) and could hear exactly what they were saying.

"My god, Blake!" we could hear a girl, probably Lainey, say in an annoyed tone. "I can handle myself, okay?"

"But Lainey…" started the boy in the room (Blake).

"Blake. Seriously." They weren't yelling or anything but the quiet seriousness made it almost worse. "I'm a big girl. I can do what I want without your supervision, okay? And right now I want to go for a swim with the girls."

"It's not safe Lainey!"

"We went swimming a bunch of times before you even found out about our secret. You knowing doesn't suddenly make it more dangerous."

"But what about Jean?" asked Blake, making me much more alert. "What if she decides to go for a swim too and she sees you?"

I walked into the room despite Bella and Nicole's frantic "no" signals they were sending me. "Do you know where Jean is?" I asked Blake. His worried face quickly turned to shock as soon as he saw me enter the room, as had Lainey's annoyed face. I blushed from all of the attention and then repeated the question.

"No…" said Lainey as she probably tried to figure out what I was doing there.

"Oh." I sighed and sat down on one of Nicole's chairs. I started to twirl a lock of hair around my finger in worry, for the second time this hour. "Yeah I don't know where she is either. I'm getting worried. I don't really know where she would have even gone last night. Maybe I should go home to see if she's there…"

"Woah, hold on!" said Lainey, a bit more than confused. "What are you doing here? Weren't you unconscious in the cave last night?"

I let out a small sigh as I re-explained the whole scenario. When I finished, we decided to go to my house to see if Jean had somehow managed to get home.

When we were about to leave, Blake's cell phone rang. He quickly checked his caller ID and groaned. He answered, "Hello?" and winced at the voice that answered. "My parents", he mouthed to us. Nicole raised her eyebrows and let out a low whistle. Lainey nudged her, obviously sensitive about her boyfriend.

"Well, bye Blake!" said Lainey as I heard Blake say to his parents, "I was doing something important, I swear! Hold on a minute…" He put his hand over the receiver and hissed to Lainey, "Don't go anywhere!"

"Bye-bye!" said Lainey gleefully as we bolted out the door and she waved to Blake.

They were giggling once they reached the bottom. I was nervous though, like always.

"Is Blake going to be mad?" I asked, not wanting to start any fights or anything.

"Extremely," giggled Lainey.

"But aren't you two dating?" I asked, not understanding why this humored her.

Her face got more serious as she stopped laughing. "Blake has been a bit… overprotective lately."

"And it's driving all of us insane!" added Nicole.

"Honestly…" she said hesitantly. "I'm thinking about breaking up with him."

"Just because he's overprotective?" I asked in shocked. She thought about that.

"You're right," she said. "That's a silly reason. We'll work out our issues, don't worry." But she didn't look too sure of herself. Nicole just shrugged.

I noticed Bella was looking nervous as we were walking. Before I could ask, Nicole did.

"Bella, what's wrong?" asked Nicole.

"I'm worried about that guy from Mako Island." She was concentrating hard on the ground as we continued walking. "I mean, now we know he's not a merman, since he touched water multiple times with Amy, but what if he had caught a glimpse of me or Jean?"

"I don't think so," I said. "He didn't seem like he had."

"Well, you never know," said Lainey.

"I guess," I sighed. Alex really was odd. Who knows what he had seen and done?

"Is that all on your mind?" asked a concerned Lainey. That perked Bella up as she narrowed her eyes and turned to Nicole. I knew what was coming so I backed up. Lainey copied my actions.

"Oh yeah I forgot," started Bella as she stepped towards Nici. "I went to Lilly's this morning, and the _strangest_ thing happened. You wouldn't know about what I'm talking about, would you Nicole?"

"Oh, right, about that… heh…" Nicole bolted away from us and ran towards my house.

"Hey!" shouted Bella as she ran after her. I giggled.

Then I heard Lainey's cell phone ring. She picked it up and quickly answered. "Hellooo?" she responded to the person on the other end as she let out a giggle. Then her face became serious. "Mom, why… wait, what? But why?" I wasn't sure what was going on, but Lainey's face looked distressed.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her. She put up her pointer finger- the universal signal for "hold on"- and continued speaking to her mom. "Mom I don't understand! Why would I be in trouble?" Okay, so it seemed I wasn't the only one not sure of what was going on. As Lainey started to walk away as she continued to talk to her mom, I ran ahead to tell Bella and Nicole what was going on.

But as I walked up to them, I saw that Lainey wasn't the only one frustrated. Nicole was also on her phone, obviously talking to her mom as well.

"Mom why would I need to come home? I'm doing something really… what's THAT supposed to mean?" Nicole was flushed and Bella was a good distance away from her. I bet Nicole was actually a little bit glad her mom had called. That call was the only thing between her and Bella's wrath.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Bella. It was a weird situation. Everything was fine and then suddenly Lainey and Nicole had gotten some pretty upsetting phone calls, and I wasn't sure why.

"I have no idea," she whispered back. "Nicole's mom called and started yelling at Nicole to come home."

"Weird," I said. "Lainey's mom just called her too."

"Hmmm." Bella looked over to see Lainey click the "off" button in annoyance and toss her phone into her bag. She ran up to us as Nicole also hung up and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry guys, I have to go," said Lainey when she caught up to us.

"Why?" asked Bella.

"I'm not sure," said Lainey with a frown. "My mom said something about me being in big trouble for the "stunt" I had played…" She looked to us for answers. Unfortunately, I had none.

"My mom said basically the same thing," said Nicole. "I'm supposed to go home straight away."

"I don't know what's going on," said Lainey worriedly, pointing out the obvious.

"Do you think it has something to do with…" started Nicole.

"It couldn't possibly be!" said Bella. I looked back and forth between them, not sure what they were talking about.

"They _couldn't_ know," exclaimed Lainey. "How would they?"

"Maybe if Alex had saw…" said Bella worriedly. That's when I caught on.

"You mean, you think your moms know you're mermaids?" I asked.

"SHHHH!" They all shushed me and I backed up.

"You can't just say that stuff in public!" said Nicole, exasperated. I winced and mouthed, "Sorry".

Lainey looked towards the road to her house and sighed. "Well, the only way to find out what's up is to go home." She looked back at us. "Right?"

"Right," sighed Nicole. She started jogging towards her house with a "See you guys later". Lainey started walking home too. Now it was only Bella and me.

After walking for a few more minutes towards my house, I turned to Bella in worry. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She sighed. "No," she admitted. "I keep wondering about the Alex guy. What if he _had_ seen us as mermaids? Wouldn't it be our duty to go find him and put him on the spot either way? He can't let people know about what's at Mako Island."

"I guess…" I was starting to worry too. What exactly _had_ he seen as he brought me out of the cave? That reminded me of something I had wanted to ask the girls since I had first seen the place…

"Was that the place you girls turned into mermaids?" I blurted out. I immediately slapped my hand over my mouth. "I didn't mean to…"

"Yes." I blinked.

"Wait what?" I asked.

"Yes!" said Bella as she rolled her eyes. "That's where we transformed, yes."

I was confused. "Why did you just… tell me then? Don't you know that now I could go and become a mermaid if I wanted to?"

"But you don't." I blinked again. She was spot on. Maybe mind reading was another one of her powers besides heat? I wasn't sure.

"How did you know that?" She shrugged.

"I just know." She started walking away, leaving me confused. And a little annoyed. The whole "mysterious mermaid" thing was a bit annoying.

"Where are you going?" I called out to her.

"To find Alex!" she shouted back.

"But…" I saw her running towards the water.

"Bye!" she shouted before plunging into the deep. I sighed and sat down on a bench. Now I was alone. I felt cold suddenly as I got up and walked to my house, afraid of what I might find.

As I creaked open the door, I blinked I surprise. Because there was Jean, sleeping soundly in the perfectly orderly house on the perfectly orderly couch. Her small breaths took up the empty sound of the place, since our parents were away for the night for some business thing.

"Jean!" I whispered to her, praying that she was alright. "Jean!"

"Wha…?" she mumbled as she slowly pushed up off of the couch, the cushions trembling beneath her. "Where… where am I?" She looked up. "Amy?" She cleared her throat.

"Oh my gosh, you're alright!" I squeezed her into a big hug as a few tears fell down my face. I am a very emotional person.

"Woah, woah," she sat up, utterly confused. "What the hell are you talking about?"

I sighed. "Well, you kinda saw the moon last night…" She immediately groaned and stuffed her face back into her pillow. After a few more seconds of waiting for her flushed face to die down, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and swept her bangs back. "What… what happened… Did I…" She took a deep breath.

"What?" I asked her, a little scared. Jean is usually the strong one, with me being the one who's always crying and being frightened.

"Did I hurt you?" She looked up with a few tears in her eyes. This took me by surprise.

"Oh, Jean…" I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a hug. She took a few deep breaths.

"Well did I?" She asked again.

I sighed. "Yeah…"

She pulled away. "What did I do?"

"It's really not a big deal…"

"What did I do?"

I sighed again. There has been a lot of sighing going on today, I realized, with Alex and the confusing actions of Lainey and Nicole's parents and now with my own sister. "I think… I think you knocked me out unconscious."

"Oh my god, are you serious?" She started checking my head and my arms and any other place I might have had a bruise or some other indication of pain. I pulled away as she gave me a guilty look.

"I should have been much more careful… after all these years… and now I've actually hurt someone…" She buried her face in her hands. I took a deep breath. All of my feelings today have been overwhelming, to my extreme anger in Alex to my extreme pity for Jean.

"It might not have been you though…" I slapped my hand over my mouth as I realized the effects of what I had just said.

She sniffled once more before looking up in confusion. "Wait… what? Well who else could it be?"

"Oh crap…" I muttered as my gaze was directed towards the floor I was currently rubbing my feet against.

Jean's tears were gone. "Amy… what _exactly _happened last night?" I was silent for a minute. "Amy, you need to tell me!"

"It's not much, okay? You don't need to get so worked up…" She raised her eyebrow as she obviously saw past my attempt to avoid the question. But, since I'm the kind of person who doesn't take pressure very well, I cracked.

"Okay okay, so here's the story." She sat quietly as I explained. "You saw the moon last night and started swimming towards Mako Island."

"That's the place Mom told me about…" said Jean. I nodded before continuing.

"So anyways, I found this guy that was going towards Mako Island anyways so he dropped me off there. When I got there I looked around until I fell into this hole in the ground, which led to the cave where I found you. Except…" I paused.

"Except…" She beckoned me to continue.

"Except Bella was there too."

"Wait… isn't she one of those girls? Bella Edwards?"

"Uh, yeah…"

"She knows about me?" She shrieked.

"No!" I swore, feeling guilty that I had to lie to her. "She was just as moonstruck as you were…" Yeah, that was true, but she still knew. _But I can't lie to my sister,_ I told myself. _She needs to know… _I got ready to tell her that she actually did tell them until she interrupted me.

"Well that's a relief. Because if I she EVER finds out about our family, we just might have to move again!"

"Wait…" Panic started to grow inside my chest as I thought of what I had done. "Is that why we moved from Key Largo in the first place?"

She sighed. "Yes. Someone in my school found out, someone who wasn't my friend and I couldn't trust, and after bribing them not to tell, we moved away." She looked me in the eye. "Now you know why this is the utmost importance to keep this secret, well, a _secret_. And you CAN'T let those girls know about me! Honestly, even though I wouldn't like it, I'd be fine with it, but Mom and Dad would send us away to who knows where! I mean, at least this time we got to stay near the ocean, but what if we have to move to Russia or something the next time?"

"Okay… I… I promise…" I looked away to hide my guilt. On the outside I probably looked like I was sorting through it all, but on the inside I was an ocean of worry. I came _that_ close to telling her I had told those girls…

"I've got to go." I blurted out abruptly as I stood up and started walking towards the door. I must have looked a little too anxious because Jean grabbed my shoulder and I turned to see her raised eyebrows questioning my actions. "Amy?" She asked.

"What?" I said nonchalantly. She didn't buy it.

"You didn't tell them… did you?" She stepped closer. "Because if you did, I won't be mad."

"I…" I paused. Jean stared me down, waiting for my response. "I never told." I said to her feeling more guilty than ever. "I swear."

"Swear and promise?" I felt a little pang in my heart. When we swear and promise, that's more to us than just a pinky swear. It's like… it's like a big of a deal as marriage, only with secrets. It was something we sisters are FORBIDDEN to lie about. So that's why I felt so incredibly horrible as I repeated her words to me. "Swear and promise." She smiled and walked away, leaving me to feel even more guilty as I walked out the door.

I actually wasn't sure where I was going. Maybe to see how things were going with Blake's parents, maybe to see what was going on with Lainey and Nicole, maybe to go see what Bella was doing… I had no idea. I was probably just going to keep walking until something came up. And something did come up. Or should I say, _someone_ came up.

"AMY!" shouted a familiar voice from behind me. I turned to see Nicole running towards me.

"Nicole! What's going on?"

She looked behind her quickly before answering. "I snuck out of my house."

"What? Why?"

"Because my parents are onto me! The school gave them a letter for a confirmation that I really am allergic to chlorine."

"Wait… but you're not…"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course not dummy! But me and Lainey had to fake it! Bella was lucky enough that everyone thinks she's still hydrophobic!"

"I still don't get why you snuck out…"

She sighed and rolled her eyes while I tried not to feel offended. "They're questioning me about it and asking why I'm faking it. When I tell them I'm not faking it, they want me to prove it. And we can't fake a rash without Bella's heat power! That's why I came to see you. Didn't Bella go with you to your house?"

"Actually, no. She left to go find that Alex guy."

Nicole groaned. "Great. She could be anywhere by now…" She started running away.

"Are you going to go find her?" I called out.

"Yes!" she responded. "And go get Lainey and tell her to meet me at Mako!"

"Umm… okay!" I said awkwardly as I walked towards her house.

As I stepped onto her small deck and knocked on her door, I could hear faint sounds of bickering from inside. _Her parents must have found out about the chlorine too,_ I thought as the fighting died down and someone came to answer the door.

"Hello?" asked someone I've never seen before. She was tan and was wearing high-waisted white shorts over a light pink, short sleeved sheer dress shirt covering a plain white camisole. Chunky tribal necklaces hung over her neck and matched her beaded bracelets. She was half talking to me in an annoyed tone and half looking at her French fingertips embellished with tiny pink crystals. Her feet were barefoot and looked like she had been painting her toenails, since only one foot had pink polish on it. "What do you want?" she asked as she flipped her wavy, highlighted hair over her shoulder and slightly chewed on her pinky nail. I noticed she was wearing light pink lipstick, not as bold as Bella's everyday lipstick, but still noticeable that it was lipstick. Her eyes were covered in shiny white powder as well, matching her flawless complexion. I had one word- W.O.W.

She let out a sigh. "What did you come here for, to waste my time? I have better things to do than stand at the door and wait for some obnoxious stranger to tell me why they're stalking-"

"DESTINY!" I heard Lainey's voice yell out from inside. "Leave Amy ALONE!"

Destiny rolled her eyes and walked away, leaving just Lainey and me on her doorstep. After mumbling something, Lainey shut the door and crossed her arms, blowing her side bangs out of her face.

"I can NOT believe her. The most annoying sister ever…" She went on back to mumbling.

"Really, Lainey, it's fine. But Nicole told me to come over here to say…" I peeked at the door. "Well you obviously don't need me to tell you. Looks like you've found out for yourself," I said, bringing up the bickering from inside.

Lainey sighed and sat down on a small bench on her deck that looked like it was woven out of wood pieces. I sat next to her as she rubbed her temples to sooth her obvious headache.

"My parents found out about me faking the chlorine thing. Some letter in the mail from school…" She sighed and grabbed a small knit pillow from on top of the bench and hugged it. "I don't know what to do. There's fighting and… and Destiny is being such a brat… and my secret… and then Blake to top it all off…" She groaned and stuffed her face into the pillow.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" I said quietly. "I wish…" I trailed off, not wanting to sound like the person she barely knows trying to comfort her.

She took a deep breath and lifted her head. "Well," she started. "I bet Nicole's in the same situation as me, right?"

"Oh! Yeah!" I exclaimed, remembering Nicole's request. "Nicole snuck out of her house to go find Bella and told me to tell you to meet them at Mako Island."

She sighed. "I'm afraid I can't. My parents would kill me if I snuck out right now."

"Well you can't prove to them you are allergic to chlorine without Bella, right?"

She thought about that. "Right," she admitted. She then peered through a window that I assumed led into the kitchen, giving there were pots hanging from shelves visible from the window, and then quietly stepped down the porch. I followed her to the small park in between all of the circles of houses where I had seen Nicole running towards Mako.

"Okay," started Lainey. "I know I'm going to be in big trouble when I get back, so you better go and claim you had left before I did if anyone asks so that you don't get in as much trouble as me." She started running towards the small dock at the end of the park and yelled out, "Bye!" as she dived into the surf. I wondered what was with them and non-discreet exits.

**(Well that's the end of this chapter! I'm so terribly sorry it took forever to get this up! I was just so busy… Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, even though it's not my best. There was going to be more going on but I just decided to span it out over more than one chapter, since this chapter was already pretty long. I realized it's also a bit choppy in places, but just bear with me! LOL. Also, check out my profile for the pictures of what characters in my story look like. Chapter 23 will be up soon (I PROMISE) and one more thing: Don't forget to review!)**

Here is a sketch (sort of) of what the neighborhood they live in looks like.

Key: | = shoreline, |::: = small dock, |:::::: = big dock for larger boats, |: = Blake's private little dock, ~ = ocean, O = Mako Island (obviously bigger and more far away), X = building, + = park outline, XXXXXX = apartment complex thingie, RH = random house, ...= pretend this is a space! P.S. Some of these characters you don't know about yet, and there are other houses farther out past what I've shown, but they aren't important.

~ |:::... ... ... ... ... X (LILLY'S)... ... ... ... ...X (KRISSY) ... ... ... ... ...X (ALISON) ... ... ... ... ...X (NICOLE)

~ | ... ... ... ... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... X (BELLA)

~ |:::... ... ... ... +... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... +... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... X (LAINEY)

~ | ... ... ... ... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+... ...+ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...X (BLAKE)

O |:

~ | ... ... ... ... ... ...X (JEAN & AMY) ... ... ... X (MIKAYLA) ... ... ... ...X (HANNA) ... ... ... ... ...X (SCHOOL)

~ |:::::: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...X (BAIT SHOP) ... ... ... X (RH) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... XXXXXX

~ |::::::

~ | ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...(SHOPPING MALL)


	23. Bella Edwards POV The New Me

*Bella Edwards*

I yelled "Bye!" to Amy just before diving into the surf, leaving her to go find her sister alone. I admit I would like to come with her to talk to Jean, but that Alex guy was really starting to bug me. I knew nothing about him, and yet he had invaded my home, my place, and almost my secret. I felt like a house probably would after being robbed. You know, if houses had feelings.

The cool, tingling water rushed by me in bubbles of anticipation. I let out a small laugh as I stopped, watching the bubbles from my breath carry themselves towards the surface, and swam deeper so that if I swam even faster, a wake wouldn't show up on the surface. I sank a bit before plunging myself forward. I let out another giggle as I spun myself around like a corkscrew.

_Right,_ I thought to myself as I paused. _Alex…_ Finding Alex was my top priority here.

Scanning places where he might be in my head, I decided trying Mako out first would be the smart thing to do. After all, who knew if he even lived here and if he was at Mako before, who's to say he won't be again?

I was about to speed off before looking and seeing the "Octopus", as me and my friends had come to call this giant piece of coral that was so much fun to swim in and out between the eight long, twisting coral arms. I grinned as I drifted towards the "arm" closest to my destination and paused.

You see this is sort of my thing: I start at the arm and see how long it takes for me to get to the pool. It's sort of like racing myself, and it really compels to go faster. And believe me faster was what I needed now.

_3… 2… 1… GO!_ And I was off, heading towards the pool. As soon as I reached the canal that led into the cave, I stopped counting the seconds and grinned. 17 ½: New record! I was still giddy from my small race as I popped up in the cave, only to be frozen in my tracks.

"HOLY SHIT!" I cried out as I flailed backwards and tried to dive back under. But the sight that had caught my eye grabbed a hold of my arm and pulled me back towards it. No… not it… _him._

When I looked up again in fear of the person who was now looking at me up and down, tail and all, I realized he fit Amy's description perfectly.

"Alex," I whispered.

"You know me?" he asked, raising one eyebrow and keeping a firm grip on my arm. I struggled to free myself, but let's face it; I've never been much of a tough one.

"Amy said…" I stopped.

"Oh, what a weird coincidence!" laughed Alex as he swung my arm around. My cheeks were flushed and my eyes grew huge as I realized he wasn't surprised at all by my tail. "I just saw her earlier today. Funny girl…" He looked me up and down again. "Need some help getting out?"

"No!" I groaned as I tried to pull away for the tenth time. And failed miserably. I looked up at him. "What do you want?" I asked fiercely, although on the inside I was frozen with fear of what he might do.

"Geez, just wondering if you'd like some help out."

"Well, I don't!" But apparently he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He gripped my forearm even tighter and caught my other arm as well. Even with my struggles and failed attempts to get back in the water, he forced me onto the land.

When he let go I plopped onto the sandy floor and harrumphed as I crossed my arms. This boy was annoying.

But as I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye I realized something else. He was actually… sort of… cute. No, not _sort of_ cute, oh my god he was hot! A warm feeling engulfed my heart in seconds and I realized I had started to breathe faster. I shook my head to get rid of all those thought. _What am I thinking?_ I asked myself.

"You're Bella right?" I nodded. "Alright. So how does this thing work? I've seen you around town so I know you're not always like this." He indicated towards my tail as I blushed.

"I… I…" I stammered, my cheeks turning a deep crimson, as I struggled to find words.

"Um, are you okay?" he asked.

I blinked a few times and shook my head. "I'm sorry," I said as I propped myself up onto my elbows. "It's just… you don't seem very… shocked?"

He laughed, and the warm feeling oozed over me again. I had to remind myself to breathe right for the second time. "Oh this is pretty cool," he said as he ran a hand along my tail. I felt cool sparks where his fingers left a trail and I gasped.

He quickly pulled back. "I'm sorry, did it hurt?" he asked.

"No… it… it felt good…" I took a deep breath to clear my head before looking him in the eye. "So what are you going to do?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean!"

"Do I?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. I felt a little irritated.

"Of course you do!"

"Well I'm not quite sure if I know what you're talking about, but please," he said with a smirk. "Do tell."

"What are you going to do about… this?" I asked indicating towards my tail.

"Oh, that!" he said as he rolled his green eyes and flipped his hair back. "Nah, won't tell!"

"Wait, _what?"_ I asked in disbelief. Here this guy is just sitting here, calmly discussing the fact that I'm a _mermaid…_

"You do realize what I am, don't you?" I asked him.

He laughed. "You're the little mermaid!" He was laughing his head off.

"I am NOT a little mermaid!" I pouted. "In fact I'm the tallest out of the three of us!" I immediately slapped my hand over my mouth and groaned as I realized what I had just said. "Damn it," I swore under my breath.

"Oh, so there's more of you?" He considered that. "Makes sense. This the place where it happened?" He indicated towards the small cave we were currently in.

"How did you…" I again realized I had just made a mistake and sunk my face into the sandy floor with a shriek at my own stupiditiness.

"So I'm right?" He chuckled. "Well that's cool I suppose. What's the story? How'd it happen?"

I brought up my face and glared at him after swiping the sand particles off my face. He put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I get it," he said with a grin that would have turned my knees to jelly, if I had knees at the moment. "Don't wanna tell." He leaned backwards and looked up. "Cool place though," he commented. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, well, it's sort of a sacred-type place so… would you mind leaving?" I asked him, exasperated.

"This is a free country, isn't it?" he asked with a smirk. I sighed.

"But still… you shouldn't even know about this place!" A thought hit me. "In fact… how _do_ you know about this place?"

"If you aren't gonna tell your story, why should I tell mine?" he asked simply as he rolled over onto his stomach and lied down next to me. I blushed again.

"Okay then, could you at least tell me why you're even at Mako Island?" I asked. "Most people just avoid it all together. You know, it being a shark breeding ground and all."

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that's what _most_ people would do," he said before looking at me. I felt little butterflies as his green eyes warmed my heart. "Alright, I'll tell you." He looked away. "You see, my parents, my little sister and I, literally moved from the opposite side of the continent, and when I got here a few days ago, well I guess I wanted to go exploring. I heard someone talk about this place and decided to check it out with my dad's boat. I ended up spending a lot of time around here and last night, I was already on the island when it started storming. I eventually fell into that hole over there," he pointed towards the entrance to the cave, "and found that Amy girl talking to someone. When I went over there, she was the only one there. She seemed really dizzy and disorientated so I assumed she had hit her head or something, so I brought her to shore for the night, where she passed out."

"And bringing her to the hospital never occurred to you?" I asked sarcastically as I rolled my eyes, although on the inside I was jelly.

"Actually, no," he admitted. "Although even if I had thought of it, it would have been pretty hard to drag her into the boat. When she woke up, she was such a crabby pants so I took her to Lilly's and after changing clothes came back to investigate this cave thing. And then you popped up out of nowhere." He looked at my tail and I tried scooting towards the water.

"Hey, I wanted to show you something!" he said innocently as he dragged my tail back over. "So like I had asked before, how does this mermaid thing go away?"

"Like this," I said nonchalantly as I dried myself off with my power. Honestly I shouldn't have done that, but I sort of wanted to show off. He raised his eyebrows.

"Impressive." He said with a grin. "Super powers. Cool."

I just rolled my eyes, stood up, and dusted myself off. "Okay then, what is it you wanted to show me?"

"Over here," he said as he beckoned me forward with his hand. He climbed up the steep crevice, amazing me, before pulling me up too.

He walked around for a while and I followed until we came to the small stream I had fallen into the day I had become a mermaid. I let out a small giggle as I imagined that day, and how little we knew then.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing much. It's just that if I wouldn't have fallen into this stream and twisted my ankle, I probably wouldn't have fell into the cave and become a mermaid!" I laughed. Then I realized, once again, I had said too much and shut up, cursing myself in my head. God I can be so stupid. Especially around him.

He just shrugged though, surprising me again with his lack of questions. "Well okay." We continued along the path, after walking over those rocks that were still positioned in the stream from that fateful day that summer, and came to this area of trees where many of them overlapped each other, creating a very shadowy area beneath where hardly any sun met the moist ground.

Alex beckoned me over once more and I followed, squatting next to him as he picked something up off of the forest floor.

"Isn't this stuff cool?" he asked with a grin.

I immediately took some of the shimmery white powder from his palm and gazed at it in awe. "Yeah… it is…" _Moon dust…_ I thought to myself. Thinking of all the experiments that could be done with it, of course not by me, I put some of it deep down into my pocket, where the sun wouldn't convert it to moon rock.

Alex dropped the dust and stood up. "Well I'm probably going to head back to the mainland. Interested in joining me?"

Although the thought of being in a small boat alone with Alex was tempting, I knew I should probably get back to the girls, even if I know perfectly well they will be extremely pissed at me. "Actually, I should probably just swim back."

"Oh right, mermaids must be good at swimming. Can you breathe underwater or something?"

"No, but we can hold our breaths for up to an hour." I answered. "Oh and we can also swim almost twice the speed of speed boats, maybe more." I winced internally. I wasn't sure why I kept telling him everything about me. Maybe it was those eyes…

"Well, I'm sure there isn't too many spots for you to dry off at, so you should mind as well get a ride." We started walking towards the shore.

"Well, if you put it that way, I guess it would be okay." I pushed a palm frond out of the way the same time as Alex ducked under a leafy branch. "But you do promise not to tell a soul about me, right?"

"Of course," he said as he rolled his eyes. He pushed aside another branch as we escaped the jungle and walked towards the small boat.

He walked up to the small side door and opened it with a welcoming gesture. "Ladies first," he said with a grin.

I smiled at him as I stepped into the boat. Only I should have been looking at my feet instead.

I tripped and fell into the boat, somehow twisting and landing on my back. When I had fallen I had somehow tripped Alex as well and he went flying into the boat too…

Landing right on top of me.

Just like in those movies where a guy saves a girl and he ends up on top of her and they just sit there regaining their breath for 5 minutes, I was frozen, trying to catch my breath with Alex an inch away from my face, which was definitely not helping at all. The tension was so extreme I felt I would be disintegrated by it. I looked up at his green eyes and he smiled. I smiled back and let out a small laugh. And then he did something unexpected.

He leaned forward, put his hand around the back of my head, and gave me a kiss. And no, this was not a peck on the lips, this was a 10 second kiss where you wrap each other's arms around each other and get real close. And I mean real close.

I had to remind myself to breathe as I pulled away, my mind racing and my pulse racing even faster as I breathed heavily in the scent of him.

"I really should just swim back," I said quickly as I stood up and jumped off the side of the boat.

"But…" he protested.

"Bye!" I answered before jumping into the ocean, where things could make a lot more sense and I could forget about the handsome guy that had just kissed me a few seconds ago.

I swam for quite a while, longer than necessary, as I tried to regain my composure. My feelings were all mixed up and even the calm, serene atmosphere of the deep blue ocean couldn't keep my feelings in check.

My pulse eventually returned to normal as I lazily drifted underneath the sea. I was mortified and giddy with excitement at the same time.

Part of me was horrified he had kissed me, and mad at myself for letting him find out my secret, and so many other things about me.

But the other part wanted kisses. Kisses, kisses, and more kisses. I wanted Alex to wrap his arms around my neck and lock his lips with mine and we'd be so lost in kissing that we would have to remind ourselves to breathe…

_No!_ said the other part of my mind. _This isn't right! You hardly know him and yet you're fantasizing about making out with him? Disgusting, Bella, that's just disgusting. What would you have done if you would have seen Blake and Lainey do something like that?_

That's just the thing though, I totally and completely understood why Lainey was so… well… into Blake. So into _kissing_ Blake. Heck, if I could, I'd still be there, kissing Alex right now.

_Maybe it was just because it was your first kiss,_ I told myself. _That's probably why…_

Okay, I know it's a bit odd that I'm 15 and just been kissed for the first time. I mean yeah, I've had someone in 4th grade kiss my cheek, but that doesn't qualify as a first kiss in my book. Nor in anyone else's, it seems.

As I reached the sandy beach where no one was around and I could easily dry off without getting noticed, a voice interrupted the little argument inside my head debating the kiss from Alex.

"Hey!" shouted a very familiar voice. "Bella!" I turned to see Lainey in her mermaid form a few meters away from me, waving and calling me over. I grimaced before scooting my way over there.

"Hey, what's up with you?" asked Lainey with a funny expression on her face.

"Nothing," I said. "I'm fine." She raised an eyebrow and then shrugged.

"Well, Nicole and I have been looking for you everywhere, and I stopped here to see if you were on land, but you're here now, so that's good…"

"Why do you need me?" I asked.

"Both Nicole and I got letters in the mail for our parents confirming that we're allergic to chlorine."

"Problem is?" I asked. You can see I was hardly paying attention and still thinking about Alex.

"Bella, you_ know_ what the problem is," said Lainey. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Umm…" I trailed off. She crossed her arms as I looked at her nervously.

"Where were you Bella?" she asked.

"At… Mako…"

"Doing what?"

"Just looking for Alex…"

"Did you find him?"

I traced tiny hearts in the sand that I was sure Lainey couldn't see from her direction while answering her. "Yeah…"

"Well then that's good news!" She exclaimed. "Why are you so down then?"

I bit my lip before blurting out. "Alex kissed me!" I clamped my hand over my mouth and instantly regretting it.

"He… what?" she asked in shock.

"He also found out about us being mermaids," I admitted.

"WHAT?" shrieked Lainey.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" I exclaimed.

"Okay, okay," said Lainey as she squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. "Just explain from the beginning."

"Okay," I said as I explained to her the series of events that had just occurred. Minus the part where I had the little fight inside myself over the kiss. "-and then he kissed me and I jumped off the boat and swam here. The end." I looked up and hoped Lainey didn't think I was hiding something.

"Did you like the kiss?" she asked.

"Uh…" I was speechless. Lainey groaned and my cheeks turned red.

"You DID like it!" she said exasperated, rubbing her temples.

"Could we please keep this from Nicole?" I whispered.

"Why?" she asked.

"It's just… you didn't react very well to it…"

"Who would…" she muttered.

"Exactly!" I pointed out to her. "That's why I don't want Nicole knowing, especially since you guys both have a lot to deal with."

She looked at me before sighing. "Alright, alright. Speaking of our stuff we need to deal with, we need to go to Mako Island to meet up with Nicole. It's about the whole chlorine allergy thing."

"Which was a bad idea from the start," I sighed, trying to get the thought of Alex off my mind.

"Well we better hurry up!" said Lainey as she pushed herself off from the sandy shore, and slipped underneath the surface of the water. I followed her in a motion more or less the same and caught up to her rather quickly.

In a few short minutes of swimming towards Mako, oh how much I loved the sheer speed in which we can swim at, we popped up in the moon pool. Nicole had beaten us though.

"How long have you been here?" I asked Nicole. She thought on that.

"Probably… 15 to 20 minutes?" I thought about that. That means she must have gotten here give or take a few minutes after Alex and I (I felt giddy with that thought in my head) left the cave. I shuddered. It wouldn't have gone so well if she would have swum in a bit before…

"Well we have something serious to talk about," said Lainey as she gazed at me knowingly. I gave her a sharp look that obviously said, _We're NOT telling her about that!_ Of course I assumed she was talking about Alex kissing me.

"Is something going on here?" asked Nicole suspiciously. I immediately reverted my facial expression to a normal smile and said, "Nope, nothing," the same time Lainey said, "Actually, there is." I glared at her again and mouthed, _What are you doing?_ She held up her pointer finger as if to tell me to hold on and I internally sighed.

"You know that guy Alex?" started Lainey. I held back a groan. "Well, he knows about us." I shouldn't have, but I actually perked up on that thought. Hey, at least she wasn't telling Nici about the kissing thing.

"Wait, how?" asked Nicole in confusion. "Did he see Bella and Jean in the pool last night?"

"Not… quite…" I sighed and re-explained the scenario in which I was found out. She did get mad at me at the parts where I let too much slip, but other than that it went fine. Luckily I easily avoided the kissing part.

"So now we need to make sure he doesn't tell anyone," said Lainey, ending this conversation.

"Uh, how?" I asked.

"Well, if we see him, keep an eye on him." Lainey made her intentions very clear as she sent a smirk my way. "You won't have any trouble with that at all, would you Bella?" I blushed, furious and embarrassed at the same time.

"Ummm…" I stammered. Luckily, Nicole butted in.

"We still need to worry about the whole chlorine thing too," pointed out Nicole as she leaned backwards onto the rocky steps.

"Well, everyone believes I'm hydrophobic, so why not you guys use that excuse?"

"Wouldn't work," said Lainey dismissively. "What, we've been swimming all these years and suddenly are afraid of water?"

"Not possible," said Nicole with a sigh.

"But isn't it a better option than trying to prove the whole chlorine thing. I mean, what if we go on a field trip somewhere where there's water?"

"That wouldn't be so good," mumbled Nici.

"I guess it _might_ work if we come up with some tragic thing that happened to us, and then say we faked the whole chlorine thing since we were scared of water." Lainey was thinking about this.

"Well I think it would work," I commented.

"What are we waiting for?" asked Nicole. "Let's get moving!" She pushed herself up halfway out of the water using the stone steps as leverage and then let go, dropping a good 5 feet into the water. From there, she sped away, Lainey and I following her.

~Bella~

An hour later, Nicole, Lainey, and I were all sitting at our favorite booth at Lilly's, feasting on delicious smoothies. We discussed regular old teen things like the Katy Perry movie and that new section of the mall where there are amazing assortments of shoes, until Amy showed up.

"Hey! Amy!" called over Nicole as she patted the seat next to her. Amy gave us a worried look and tilted her head to the right. Confused, we looked to where she was indicating and saw Jean sitting at the counter, sipping her smoothie in content. She turned to see Amy and waved her over. Amy mouthed "sorry" and walked over there to sit down.

Looking back at the girls, I could see they were just as confused as I was. Nicole leaned over the table. "What's going on?" she whispered. "I thought she was going to tell her sister about us."

"Yeah," said Lainey. "Did something go wrong?"

We all looked over to where Jean and Amy sat talking about something. I saw Jean point towards our booth and Amy sigh and nod. Huh. Wonder what that was about.

Just then Lainey's phone rang. She tapped the touch screen and held the phone to her ear while sipping through her straw. "Hello?" she asked. Her face fell and I winced. I knew exactly who called. "Uh… Blake?" Oh. Never mind. I was wrong. Lainey sighed. "Yeah… um, we did… I know, okay?" Her voice was starting to rise and I looked around the café with a worried expression. Some people in booths next to us started to raise eyebrows. "Blake, we had to do something! No… seriously… okay there were just some problems at my house… Blake I… come on, seriously?... Really? Wow… no Blake… okay let's just… ugh… hold on I have a person on the other end." She tapped a few places on her phone as people started concentrating on their drinks more. "Hello?" she asked, exasperated. Her face looked alarmed. Now I knew I was right about who was calling. "Mom! Oh, uh… for a walk… I was too! You can't control my life… it was not Amy's fault…" I saw Amy spin to look at Lainey. "No she left before I did… yes! I needed to… Mom… Mom! Alright fine! No… yes… no! Mom I… I'll be there soon… okay, fine, bye!" She hung up and groaned, hitting her head on the table.

"Um, Blake's still on the other end," I gently reminded her.

"Oh!" she quickly picked the phone back up. "Blake? Sorry… look we have to talk about this later…" She put her hand over the receiver and mouthed to us, "I have to go". She listened again and winced a few times as she walked out the door, pushing aside the assorted hanging beads.

After that Nicole checked her cell phone to see if her mom or dad had called, which they hadn't. But she still stood up out of the booth and groaned. "Well I mind as well get moving anyways since my parents are bound to call me soon. See ya." She didn't even bother pushing aside the beads as she walked straight through them, falling behind her as she left the building.

"I guess it's just me now." I said to myself as I used my straw to stir my strawberry banana boombox. I took a long sip and tried to forget about everything except for the sweet taste of my smoothie as I closed my eyes. I was in complete bliss.

Until a nearby waitress walked by with a few glasses of water and spilt it onto my lap.

"Oh my gosh!" said a waitress with a dark brown bob, stained uniform shirt, and crooked nametag with the words "Ella" printed on it. She was obviously new here. "I'm soo sorry!"

"It's okay," I mumbled as I quickly hopped out of the booth and ran towards the door, seeing as there was a line at the bathroom. I was about to jump into the ocean when the one person I didn't want to see at the moment bumped right into me.

"Bella?" asked a familiar voice.

"Oh," I squeaked. "Alex…" I regained my voice. "Look, Alex I gotta go…"

He looked at my shirt and saw the spilt water. "Aaah," he voiced in understanding. I then quickly dived into the water.

I took my time getting to somewhere to dry off, leisurely swimming about. I loved the feeling where the water ran through my fingers, leaving a cool feeling afterwards. It made me giggle.

I hardly knew where I was heading until I popped up above the surface of Mako Island. I didn't remember actually _planning_ on going towards Mako, but I wasn't going to waste the trip. I floated on my back, every few seconds flicking the flukes of my tail to keep myself afloat. I sighed as I closed my eyes.

"Hey," said a voice from above me. I turned to see Alex crouching down right above me.

"Oh," I said, embarrassed he had to see me like this again. "Hey." I floated over to where he was kneeling and looked him in the eye. "What are you doing back here again?"

"Well, I figured you would head over here after the little spill happened," he explained. "And I wanted to see you.

"For?" I asked as I looked down at the water and made little patterns with my finger.

"I think you know why." I looked up and he immediately grabbed my face and met my lips with a passionate kiss. My second kiss… not any more disappointing than the first. My heart skipped a beat.

"I can't," I said as I pulled away.

"Why not?" he asked as he dipped his toes into the cool, refreshing water.

"It's just… I hardly know you…"

"Well we can both get to know each other." He grinned. "Besides, you seem like the person I'd like to get to know." He grabbed my hand and gave it a quick squeeze.

I pulled away again. "My friend doesn't think it's a good idea."

"She a mermaid too?" he asked. "Well she doesn't know what a good idea is and what's not. None of your buddies even need to know that we're… together."

"It just doesn't feel right…"

He gave me a quick kiss in the corner of my mouth, moving slowly towards the center and then pulled back. My stomach was engulfed in butterflies and I was breathing shaky breaths.

"So you're saying that didn't feel right?" he asked seductively. I couldn't answer.

He swooped his hand into the water and picked me up with one hand under my tail and another under my neck, something that immediately shocked me, giving that my tail weighed so much, and gave me another quick kiss. "So, Bella," he asked. "Would I have the honor of being your boyfriend?"

I blushed and didn't know what to say. I know what type of person I am. I'm the kind of person who doesn't want to speak up in class and never wants to hurt anybody. I'm the kind of person who is shy and timid and can't speak up for herself. I'm the kind of person who is deathly afraid of many things, and most of all, I'm the kind of person who would never,_ ever, _keep secrets from friends.

But then I realized something. That was the _old_ me. When I became a mermaid, everything changed. I became the kind of person who would burn teacher's notes so that we won't have homework assignments. I'm the kind of person who will hurt someone- _brutally _- if they ever said something mean to my friends. I'm the kind of person who got over her fears, speaks up for herself on a daily basis, and now, I guess I'm the sort of person who would be willing to lie to my friends for the guy holding me right now, three inches away from my face.

"Yes," I said to Alex with a mischievous grin. "I'd _love_ for you to be my boyfriend."

**(A/N: Well, I hope you like the little change in Bella's personality. I thought the idea of a secret boyfriend would be cool, especially for someone like Bella. I know Lainey found out about it, but Bella still doesn't tell her about him being her boyfriend. Okay I also said that there would be a lot of chaotic things going on, and there's going to be more, I'm telling you that. And then soon there'll be –dum de dum!- Bella's 16****th**** birthday party! She's actually the oldest out of all of them, but that won't be coming for a while. Also, I would like to thank the people who reviewed my story that I forgot to thank in the last chapter: h2olover, mochimochimochi32 – yes there are three mochis I can be so stupid lol- Kensie, and Jade. Oh, and, to h2olover, there will be some conflict between Lainey and Blake (LOL Blainey) just you wait! ;-) Well the next chapter will probably be up soon since I'm babysitting and since my babysit-ee is asleep, I have basically nothing to do. ANOTHER NOTE- I'm not sure if I said this in the last chapter, but I know this is set in Australia and that this isn't very realistic, since if you were in Australia you probably wouldn't know much about Katy Perry? I don't know, but I know more about American trends than Australian trends, so just deal with it. And I obviously don't own Katy Perry movie so yeah. Happy swimming, and PLEEEEAAAASE REVIEW!) **


	24. BC POV Science and Stupid Girls

*Blake Christopher*

"Lainey, you could have been… oh yeah? And how do you know that? I'm not I'm just… Lainey don't… Lainey!" I heard the click in my ear as I set my phone down with a sigh. Yep. She hung up.

I slumped down onto my couch with a nice cold icepack on my head as I thought about Lainey. Lately she's seemed very… well… I don't know… touchy? Yes, that was the word, _touchy._ It seemed like everything I say and do has to be examined underneath her little microscope. I didn't even knew why she was so mad at me. All I'm trying to do is help! I mean I know she worries about the same things as me, such as popping a tail in public and running into Jean while swimming, even though Amy was going to tell her about them. It still worried about me.

"BLAKE!" called out my not-too-pleased mother from the other room. I sighed as I braced myself to face her wrath.

"Blake, I don't know how you keep sneaking away from me!" She exclaimed, exasperated as she rubbed her temples in frustration. "I leave for _one minute _to take a call, and you're hiding away at the opposite end of the house calling your friends!"

"I'm not exactly hiding away," I explained. "More like moved to a different room." I pressed the cold pack even harder against my head as I sighed with relief.

"I don't know what's been with you lately!" said my mom. "Sneaking out at night… you've _never_ done something like this before!"

"Either that or this is the first time you caught me," I joked. But judging by the way she glared at me, I took it as she wasn't in a joking mood.

"I'm being totally serious Blake," she said desperately. "What made you sneak out last night and go wherever it is that you went? And then how did this happen to your head?"

"I told you Mom, I tripped and fell," I lied, hopefully sounding convincing enough for her to leave me alone. I shouldn't have even tried.

"Honey, I would believe you about that, if only you would tell me where you went last night," she simply stated. I sighed. I knew shouldn't have even tried to convince her. _Last night…_ Wow. Only last night. It felt like almost three years ago.

I decided that I needed to come up with a very convincing lie. "Okay Mom, to tell you the truth… I went to Mako Island last night." A crazy idea was forming in my head and I couldn't stop it.

"What were you doing there?"

"Well," I took a deep breath hoping this would work. "There were some experiments I wanted to do on the soil. I got really interested in this scientific stuff a few days ago at school and thought to try it out." I winced at how fake it sounded.

"So you went out into a storm?" my mom asked slowly.

"Exactly why I slipped and fell on a rock." I stared at her straight in the eye for at least a full minute before she responded.

"Oh honey this is so great!" blurted out my mom with a big smile. I just looked at her like she was crazy. "I never thought you would have an interest in science! Perhaps you got that from your father!" My mom was practically bouncing up and down like a giddy little kid. "Who knows, you could become famous and have a successful job as a scientist and- well who's to say we shouldn't jump at the opportunity right now? Get you enrolled in some extra science classes…"

"Mom!" I snapped her back to reality out of one of her "My son will become famous!" fantasies that she liked to dream about most often. "I just said I had an _interest_ in science, not that I wanted to have that as my career."

"Honey, you have more than an _interest_ if you go out in the middle of a thunderstorm to take tests! Especially on an island like Mako! At least take one extra science class, that way we can jump at the opportunity!"

I sighed. "Okay Mom. I'll try…" She didn't hear me past "Okay". She was already bouncing around the house, claiming her son was a "prodigy". I groaned. What had I gotten myself into?

~Blake~

After making up the whole "scientific curiosity" thing and evading all punishment from my parents besides having been enrolled into some special science class, I took a walk in the little park across from my house. The park really was quite beautiful ever since the Nature Preserve group helped get it set up again. There was a sparkling blue fountain made of marble in the center of the park, with 4 or 5 wooden benches surrounding it. Trees lined the border of the park and small stone pathways led to the center fountain from 4 different directions. The grass was regularly cut and searched for litter by volunteer workers, mostly people who got in trouble and needed to do community service though, so the park was always in tip-top shape. It really was quite a sight to see. Made me think of doing some improvements to Mako Island… although I'm sure that there are some sort of rules against that.

I sat down on one of the benches and listened to little children running around the park with kites and little dogs. As I gazed at Lainey's house, I wondered what she was up to at the moment.

I was about to walk up to her house to talk to her when she came out of the house with tears running down her face. No matter how frustrated I was with her, I wasn't going to just sit there and watch her cry.

"Lainey!" I called out. "Are you okay?"

She sniffled and wiped up her tears, immediately pasting a smile on her face. "Yep. Perfectly fine."

"But you were crying!" I protested.

"Oh… that?" Lainey laughed while I stood there, confused. "Oh, I used an onion." She showed me little bits of an onion in her purse as she laughed.

"Why are you trying to fake cry though?" I asked her.

"Simple. My parents knew I wasn't allergic to chlorine, and I said that ever since Nicole and I almost drowned at Mako Island, we have both been terrified of water." She laughed again. "And with the tears, they bought it!"

"Wait you guys almost drowned at Mako Island?" I asked in horror.

"No, dummy!" She rolled her eyes. "I made that up! And I called Nicole to make sure she used the same story. Now we're golden!"

"Wow Lainey. That was a really smart plan," I complimented her.

"Well, I can come up with a few of those once in a while," she joked. "Although it was really a group idea from all three of us. How did you get off the hook for not coming home last night?"

I told her the story, which was pretty unbelievable to anyone but my mom, who was convinced I was the smartest person in the world. Not sure why she thinks that.

"Wow," whistled Lainey. "The best idea you had was that you liked _science_? I feel bad for you. Science is the absolute worst! Especially all that chemistry and physics stuff."

"I've never been that bad at it, but I don't actually like it," I explained.

We started walking towards Lilly's. "Well," said Lainey. "At least we're all off the hook for something. Now we just need to find out what's the deal with the Jean situation."

"Yeah… do you have any idea how that's going?"

"Not really," she admitted and we held hands and walked through the beaded doorway. "Last time we say Amy she didn't want to sit with us because her sister was near."

"Maybe her sister doesn't know we know about her secret, and Amy, for some reason, wants it to stay that way," I thought out loud as we took a seat at our usual booth. "I'm not sure why."

"Me neither," shrugged Lainey. "But they'll eventually come up with some conclusion and everything will be hunky dorey."

I snorted. "I can't believe you just said that."

"Shut up," she said as she lightly punched my shoulder and laughed. I gave her a kiss on her forehead and she returned it as she burrowed her head into my neck. I smiled, hoping that we could stop fighting over all things mermaid.

I heard a snicker above us. "So," said a familiar voice that I couldn't quite place. But I know I've heard it before. "Are you two together now?" Snotty, rude… yep, I knew who it was now.

I looked up into the eyes of Miss Kristen McKinley, the most snotty, rich, conceited person I've ever had the misfortune to meet in my life. Her dark brown highlighted hair was in a messy bun, and her bright blue eyes were framed by thick lashes (probably fake) and some white eye shadow upon her lids. Bubbly pink lip gloss was sitting on the surface of her lips, with tiny specks of a coral color. She was wearing some Daisy Duke shorts with Candie's flip flops and her official Lilly's uniform shirt. A bedazzled pen was stuck in her hair just like in the movies, and she sat with one bejeweled hand on her bony hip as she leaned to the side and cocked her head.

I felt Lainey freeze as she slowly moved her head to see Krissy standing above us.

"Well, well, well," said Krissy with a very fake smile. "If it isn't Lainey Woods. Looks like you've changed." She laughed, and Lainey's face drained of all color. "How are you doing today?"

"Kristen?" asked Lainey in horror. I knew what she was seeing: The girl who had tormented her for years until she moved away to France two years ago. "What… what are you doing here?"

"Oh I work here now," smiled Krissy as she showed us her nametag and uniform.

"No, I mean… what are you doing on this side of the world?"

"Oh, that!" Krissy laughed. "You see, my mom quit her job as a plastic surgeon over in France and we decided to come back here. Isn't it wonderful? I get to finally see all of you again!" She flashed another fake smile at Lainey and then looked at me. "Especially you Blake." She grinned seductively and I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, are you going to take our orders?"

She shrugged. "Sure." She flipped over a notepad and took a pen out of her messy bun, and then sat on top of our table while crossing her legs and leaning my way. "What are you in the mood for?"

"Actually, I'm not that hungry," I said. "But would you like to take Lainey's order?"

She winked. "Of course." While she turned to Lainey I rolled my eyes. "So, Miss Woods, what are you in the mood for today? Let me guess… a Big Mac?" She laughed hysterically as Lainey's eyes filled up with tears. And there wasn't an onion in sight.

"Actually, I'll have a turkey sandwich with no mayo and a low fat vanilla-mint smoothie," said Lainey as her cheeks flushed red.

"Oh!" said Krissy in mock surprise. "Looks like your appetite has changed too!" She threw her head back and laughed as she scribbled a few things onto the notepad. She then stuck the pen back in her hair and waved her fingers as if to say goodbye. "Toots!" she said as she sauntered away.

I looked at Lainey, who was barely containing herself. "Lainey, it's going to be okay…"

"Blake, don't you remember her?" Her eyes were brimming with tears that were threatening to spill. "It's Krissy McKinley!" Her eyes were wide with fear and I kissed her cheek to calm her down.

"Don't worry Lainey," I said to her. "You're a different person now. You can stand up to yourself, and…" I looked around me to make sure no one was listening and whispered to her, "And it might be an advantage that you have kick butt mermaid powers."

She actually smiled at that one, although I knew on the inside she was a wreck. I'm not sure exactly how extensive the bullying was, since she shared most of it with Nicole and Bella, but I knew it was bad. I one time was walking in the hallways of school when I witnessed something that led me to hate Krissy as much as I do now.

_"Please…" I heard someone choke in between sobs as I rounded the corner of one of the many pillars outside of the school grounds. I had been staying after school for some project I needed to finish in Geography, and on the way out, I heard the familiar sounding plea. I ran over to see Lainey in tears, Krissy sneering at her with her posse, Mikayla Johnson, Alison Mitchell, and Hanna Evans._

_ "What are you doing?" I asked Krissy. She looked at me and grinned._

_ "Blake? Baby what are you doing here?" She walked over and stroked my arm. I pulled it away and looked at her like she was crazy. "What's wrong with you? Why are you making Lainey cry?"_

_ She laughed. "Is that your business sweetie?" I wasn't sure why she kept referring to me like that. I've heard rumors saying she liked me but I wasn't sure why. I know I hated her._

_ "I'm _not_ your sweetie," I said harshly as her posse giggled. "And why is Lainey crying?"_

_ "Why wouldn't she be?" asked Alison, the second in command. "She's a fat slut and she knows it. There are plenty of reasons for her to cry!" They all started laughing like crazy as Krissy walked over to Lainey and leaned down with an all-too-fake smile and said, "Dear, would you mind?" And then she fiercely grabbed something from Lainey's arms that I couldn't see, but it was obvious Lainey didn't want to give it to her._

_ Krissy went over to Hanna and said, "Here, I knew you liked it." Hanna laughed and turned around. It must have been some necklace because Mikayla attached a clasp around her neck._

_ Hanna turned and I saw a shining blue crystal in the shape of a starfish at the base of her neck extending from small silver chains. I gasped as I realized what it was. It was Lainey's favorite necklace from her great grandmother that was given to her in her will. Lainey burst into tears again as she sank to the floor._

_ They started to walk away before I stepped in front of them._

_ "Ooh, looks like Little Lainey got herself a protector!" sneered Mikayla._

_ "Or, should you say, NOT so Little Lainey!" said Krissy as they all laughed and pushed past me._

_ While they pushed past I grabbed the necklace and pulled it off of Hanna's neck. She must have not have noticed because they continued walking._

_ I ran over to Lainey and kneeled down, asking if she was alright. She just kept on crying._

_ "Don't worry Lainey, I got your necklace back!" I slipped the necklace into her hand and she gave me a weak smile._

_ It was then I looked on the floor and realized there were four Big Mac wrappers discarded right below Lainey._

_ "Lainey?" I asked as I showed her a wrapper. More tears built up._

_ "They said if I didn't eat all of them they would tell everyone I…" She started crying again. It must have been something bad, since she couldn't even stand to say it. I probably didn't even want to know._

_ "Oh, Lainey, it'll be alright…" I patted her back as she continued to cry. I stared at the way Krissy and her posse had headed and I gave a hard glare. I promised then and there that if I ever saw Krissy again, I would punch her snotty face and make her feel all the pain she had inflicted on Lainey._

But I never saw her again. That night she quit school and got started moving to France. And she hadn't been a burden in anyone else's lives ever since. Her posse separated and found different groups, becoming sort of nicer people, and Lainey started to try to lose some weight. She was sick of being made fun of for having a few extra pounds, but couldn't do anything about it while Krissy was around.

But now that Krissy was around again, I knew things would be different, especially for Lainey. I hugged her and pulled her in close as Krissy returned with the low fat vanilla-mint smoothie and turkey sandwich.

"Thanks," mumbled Lainey as she grabbed the things and I gave Krissy a $10 bill, exactly the amount needed.

"What? No tip?" asked Krissy with a giggle. I didn't look in her direction as I dismissed her. She rolled her blue eyes playfully and walked away.

Lainey was about to take a bite when, she must have saw or smelt something, because she took off the top of her sandwich and widened her eyes.

I leaned over to see, in yellow-ish white mayonnaise, were the words "My Dear Not-So Little Lainey, Enjoy! ;-)" scrawled across her turkey. She immediately closed the sandwich and tears started to form in her eyes. I stared at Krissy who winked at me. In fury, I grabbed the sandwich and tossed it in the nearby garbage bin. When I walked back to our booth, Lainey was staring off into space.

"Blake," she said. "She's back in my life."

"Lainey, she can't do anything to you," I reassured her. "Now do you want your smoothie or should we just leave?"

She pushed away the smoothie and wrinkled her nose. "I'm good," she said. "I don't even want to know what she's done to the smoothie."

We left the smoothie container there and walked out of Lilly's, my arms around Lainey, trying to calm her down.

Lainey, her hands shaking, took out her cell phone and dialed Nicole and Bella at the same time (3 way calling is so useful) and they both pick up. All she had to say was, "Krissy's back."

Five minutes later we were all outside of the shopping mall on a bench talking about Krissy.

"I can't believe that bitch is back!" said Nicole in disbelief.

"I know!" said Lainey. "You wouldn't have believed what she did at Lilly's!"

"Oh, believe me, I would! That girl is Satan's spawn and I know it!"

"What I can't believe is that she's working at Lilly's," I said. "One, she's loaded and doesn't need the money, and two, now we're going to have to avoid all the times where she's working there!"

Nicole and Lainey groaned at that.

"What do you think Bella?" asked Nicole, who was sitting quietly, with a small smile on her face, about a foot away from us.

"Yeah don't you have anything to say?" asked Lainey. She didn't respond.

"Bella?" I asked as I shook her shoulder. She snapped out of her trance and turned to us.

"Sorry, what?" Lainey narrowed her eyes at her and Bella looked nervous.

"Are you okay, Bells?" asked Nicole.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm just thinking."

"O…kay…" said Lainey. "Anyways, Blake, I don't think we should stay away from Lilly's. That's just showing her that we're weak. And guess what? We're not!" It seemed that now that she had enough time to get used to the fact Krissy was back in her life, she wasn't as afraid anymore.

"Yeah!" said Nicole, getting into it. "We are awesome mermaids, with kick-butt super powers, and we are just plain _better_ than she is! I say she should get what's coming to her! What do you guys think?"

"I think she needs to learn a lesson too," said Bella as her face suddenly turned dark. I wondered what Krissy had done to her. Although, she'd done something terrible to almost everyone.

"Hold on," I said before they could do something rash. "So you are just going to go up to her, use your powers to hurt her, and walk away as if she's not going to know it was you guys who did it?"

"Or," said Nicole in one of her fantasies. "We could just murder her! There are some _great_ spots I know of where we could hide the body…" I thought she was joking but one look at her face I could tell she was serious.

"However tempting that is," said Lainey. "I wouldn't get much satisfaction from it."

"Then what should we do?"

"I say we wait." They turned to stare at me with their "Are you CRAZY?" looks.

"What?" said Bella. "This demon needs to learn a lesson!"

"I know!" I said mischievously. I hated Krissy more than they thought. "Which is why we should wait for the exact right time to do something. Why settle for coming up with a whole scheme when we could simply wait for the opportunity? After all, all we need is some water somewhere to do some damage to her!"

"Or," said Lainey. "Better yet, why stop at just _one_ act of revenge? Why not go ahead and avenge ourselves whenever we get the chance, and see how long it takes for _her_ to crack?"

We all liked that idea. I looked behind Nicole's head and, taped on the wall behind her, was something that caught my attention. "Actually," I said. "I know the _perfect_ time and place to begin our revenge." I pointed towards the poster hanging above Nicole's head.

It was a poster for Kristen McKinley's welcome home party in a few weeks, on a big cruise ship owned by her parents. (Her dad owned many hotels around Australia)

"Ooh, perfect!" giggled Bella. "Cruise ship… there's plenty of water there!"

Lainey bit her lip with excitement. "I can hardly wait!"

But then my face fell. "Wait, guys… the date… it's a full moon that day!"

"Oh, who cares?" said Nicole. "Revenge is worth it!"

"Besides," said Lainey. "We are basically used to the moon by now. I'm sure none of us will be moonstruck!"

"If you're sure," I said. Usually I would remind them of the risks and tell them to stay, but it having one or two of them getting moonstruck means revenge on Kristen, I'm totally up for that!

Lainey's phone rang just then. "Hello? Dad!" said Lainey as she smiled. After getting the whole water phobia thing through to her parents, they were now probably doing much better. Lainey rolled her eyes at something her Dad said and replied, "Really? I can't believe you forgot _again_… Isn't it a bit late for lunch too?" She giggled. "Okay… okay fine… Just don't forget again, or I swear… Okay, Dad, love you!" She hung up.

"Let me guess…" giggled Bella. "He forgot his lunch again?"

"You guessed it!" laughed Lainey. "I'm so happy right now! Everything's perfect!"

"Except your face!" laughed someone in a snotty voice. I turned to see Hanna Evans shopping with Krissy (she must have gotten off her shift right after we left) and the rest of her posse. I groaned. Looks like they had a little get together, which is really sad. That Mikayla girl was actually starting to become a nice person.

Although I thought her insult was pretty lame, the girls were extremely offended by it.

"Careful," said Nicole in a threatening voice. "If you keep talking, someday something might happen that you won't like." I could already see her fingers twitching, eager to squeeze together and freeze them like human popsicles.

They all laughed at her empty threat (or so they thought) and Alison spoke up.

"What, are you going to splash us with water?" she laughed.

"Something like that," said Lainey.

"Ooh, I'm scared!" said Mikayla the same time Hanna said. "Like you could do anything!" They all laughed and walked away from the mall with at least a dozen shopping bags probably filled with shorts that cost more than my fishing boat.

I say Lainey grin as she scoured the area for something of use. I saw it the same time she did. There- a small red fire hydrant.

With one twist of her wrist, the water exploded out of the fire hydrant and spewed all over the four girls. They shrieked, and the sheer force of the water knocked them off their feet and onto the parking lot ground.

Lainey laughed uncontrollably and Bella stepped up and said, "Now it's my turn." She clenched her hand into a fist as their hair got fried.

"What the HELL?" screamed Krissy, touching her frizzy hair with panic.

"Hey!" said Nicole with a grin. "I don't want to miss out on all the fun!" She put her hands into a straight form and I heard little crackling noises as something froze of theirs. I wasn't sure until they tried getting up.

"What's going on?" shrieked Hanna as she tried getting her bag off the ground. It looked too heavy for her, and she dropped it, ice falling out of it immediately.

All of them looked confused and scared and they ran away, leaving their bags behind.

All of _us_, however, burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Well, guys," said Lainey as soon as she regained control over her breathing. "I have to go bring my dad's lunch to him. See ya!" She walked away, leaving Bella, Nicole, and me.

"I have to go too," said Bella.

"Are you sure?" asked Nicole.

"Yeah…" said Bella. "Prior engagement." And then she was off too.

A few minutes later, Nicole left too to go for a swim, and I was left alone to walk along the sidewalks probably half an hour, thinking how great revenge will be.

**(A/N: Well, I hope you all hate Krissy now! LOL she's a jerk! Anywho, as you have noticed, I have decided to have the chapters like BC- for Blake Christopher- POV instead of actually writing his entire name, just to shorten things up a bit ;-) Well the next chapter will either be a month later on the next full moon, or there will be another chapter in between that. IDK yet… Well next chapter will be up soon obviously, and please give me some constructive criticism! But no flames please! Thanks to all people reading my story, and I luv you all! Thanks and… until next time… lol…)**


	25. LW POV My Ever So Paranoid Brain

*Lainey Woods*

TWO WEEKS LATER…

I hopped onto my bed and, after getting out my homework assignments and setting them out in order from hardest to easiest, so that the hard stuff will get done first, I grabbed my cell phone. After using this convenient app where you use your fingerprint to unlock your phone (useful for keeping Destiny out of my personal stuff), I checked my messages. Nothing. I frowned as I checked again and it was a sure thing: No message from Amy. I wasn't sure what this meant.

She has been avoiding us for the last two weeks, and I wasn't sure why. I figured that she probably was just going through some tough things, so I wasn't going to call her on it, but she hasn't been calling or texting or anything, so I was getting sort of worried.

_But I can't worry about that stuff now, especially with Krissy's party coming up soon. _I said to myself as I set my phone down and grabbed the hardest assignment: Chemistry. (One of the three units of our science class- The Basics, which is mostly stuff about atoms and such, the parts I can actually live through, Chemistry, and Physics) I looked at the first of the five questions we needed to explain using short essay form and groaned. This assignment was looking close to impossible.

I grabbed my phone again called Blake- he was good with this stuff. Especially since his mother enrolled him for those extra science classes that he says he's actually starting to _enjoy. _I shuddered at the thought of enjoying science.

After three rings, he finally picked up the phone (I swear guys are so lazy about picking up their phone). "Hey baby!" I said to him. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing…" He said, sounding nervous.

"Uh, are you okay?" I asked.

"Of course!" But I could tell he was lying.

"Well, okay. Hey I was wondering if maybe you could come over for a while and help me with my Chemistry homework? You're good with this and all, and I thought, well, if we get a little distracted, so be it…" I giggled.

"Well, um…" He sounded distracted. "Uh…"

"Blake, what's wrong?"

"Nothing! Really, it's nothing… So, right now? I'm sorry baby, I can't right now. How about in an hour and a half?"

I sighed. "Sure."

"Okay. See you then! I love you!"

"Love you too." I said as I hung up.

"Well, well, well," snickered a voice behind me at my door. I whipped my head around to see Destiny leaning up against my doorway. "Did somebody get rejected?"

"I did _not_ get rejected, Des!" I rolled my eyes. "He just was busy right now and rescheduled in an hour and a half. Now leave me alone!" I threw a pillow at her.

She calmly dodged the flying assailant and rolled her eyes. "Sounded like you got rejected." She walked away before popping her head in one last time, to say, "Oh and you have to go get that pillow yourself." Then she walked downstairs.

I mumbled about how annoying she was and went to grab the pillow. While I was out in the hallway, I had a clear view of Destiny downstairs, and I noticed she was holding a water bottle.

I grinned and twisted my hand with one fast motion, causing the water from her water bottle to spurt out all over her.

"What the hell!" shouted Destiny, since our parents weren't home and she swore all the time when they weren't around to catch her. "Are you f #!ing kidding?" I whistled at her use of the F-bomb. She shrieked again and got a towel to dry herself off as she said, "I can't believe this is happening _again_!"

With that I couldn't control myself and had to go back into my bedroom to laugh so that she wouldn't hear me. Like I would care if she did.

Once I had controlled myself, I sat back on my bed and tried to work on the Chemistry homework. All the while though, a thought was nagging me in the back of my mind.

_What if Destiny was right?_ My subconscious asked. _What if Blake really _did _reject me?_

I tried to shake the thought out of my brain, but it still stayed there, bothering me in the back of my mind.

~Lainey~

An hour later, my phone rang and I rushed to it and picked it up on the first ring, just in case it was Blake. "Blake?" I half shouted into the phone.

"Um, no," said the person on the other end.

"Oh. Hi Nicole," I said with a twinge of disappointment. "What's up?"

"Not much. Just called to ask if you were busy this weekend?"

"Actually, I am. Remember? We're going to check out the cruise boat and check out the battlefield." You could tell we took this revenge thing seriously.

"Well I thought about afterwards, you could come over for a sleepover and maybe a midnight swim?"

"Sorry, but Blake's taking me out for dinner that night. But I'm sure Bella is free."

"I already tried her. Said she had to clean out her garage with her parents for the entire weekend and could only spare the time with us to go check out the boat with us."

"Bummer."

"Well see you later!" _Click._

I set the phone down after she had hung up and continued working on my Algebra homework. I knew I had no choice but to work on the next hardest homework assignment, since I was clueless at all things Chemistry. It was only because of Blake that I had a C in Science, barely keeping myself on the honor roll. And my parents said if I stayed on the honor roll until I was 16, when I get my first car, they would buy it for me. They made the same deal with Destiny but she already has no chance, since her grades are worse than Nicole's.

Algebra went by pretty fast and so did Geography, and finally a small assignment for English where we had to look up definitions in the dictionary, in which I cheated and used on online dictionary. Hey, probably 95% of the class did the same.

_Beep Beep!_ went my phone as it received a text message. I practically jumped over the bed to get to it and grabbed it at lightning speed. Yes! It was from Blake!

It said: _Hey baby, things are taking a bit longer than I thought. How about we meet in another half an hour? Thank, you're the best, xo_

I didn't know what to think. What was he so "busy" with anyways that kept him away from me?

I decided I was being too paranoid and decided to check my Facebook and go on Twitter. After doing both, and having nothing else to do for another 20 minutes, I decided to go for a walk.

I took my phone downstairs and slipped on some simple floral patterned flip flops and walked out the door. I wasn't sure where Destiny was. Probably snuck out to go do something incredibly not her age with her friends.

I walked down my road, feeling the sun bake my skin and smiling. While others are bothered by the sun and easily burn, like Nicole, I on the other hand, loved the heat and only got more tan, never red.

I looked to my left and saw Blake's house with the light on in his room, and I wondered what he was doing. I was tempted to go over there and find out myself, but restrained myself. I kept on walking towards Bella's house, passing it. But something I saw stopped me in my tracks.

There was her garage. Yeah, I know, sounds totally not important, but the thing was, the garage was _clean_. In fact I wasn't sure how you could clean it anymore, which meant only one thing… Bella had lied to Nicole.

But why? Why didn't she want to do anything with us this weekend? Briefly, the news Bella had told me two weeks ago popped into my head… that that guy Alex had kissed her. Is she… _No_, I told myself. _It couldn't be. She wouldn't lie to us! Besides, she told me just the other day she hadn't seen him again. She probably has another reason to lie to Nicole. Maybe she was just too embarrassed to admit why she needed to stay home that weekend?_ I wasn't sure, but I wouldn't rat her out. I knew she would do the same for me.

15 minutes later, Blake texted me saying he was coming over. I looked and saw, indeed, he was walking towards me. I jogged over and hooked up with him on the way.

"Hey sweetie!" I said as I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "How are you doing?"

"Fine," he said quickly. Almost too quickly. I brushed it off though.

I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled him in for a long, passionate kiss. I felt him actually get into it, wrapping his hand around my waist and pulling me closer. I smiled as I continued to kiss him. There. He was better now.

I pulled away and he kissed me on the forehead before we walked in to work on Chemistry. More like him tell me the answers as I try to comprehend what he's talking about.

As we walked into my room, I pulled out my Chemistry book and, with Blake's help, he actually made the answers look real simple, and we were done within minutes.

"Maybe your parents were right," I said. "Maybe you _are_ some kind of science prodigy."

He groaned. "Ugh, not you too!" I laughed and gave him a kiss. That small kiss led to another, and next thing I knew, I was on top of him entwining my fingers in his hair. I pulled away just a little bit every minute or so for a small breath.

"Wow," snorted a voice from my door. "If only Mom and Dad could see you like this!" I turned to see my little sister snickering.

I groaned. "Wait right here," I told Blake, who was disorientated a bit. Looks like I wasn't the only one lost in kissing.

I walked up to Destiny and shut the door behind me. "Look, Des, you can bug me at home when I'm alone, but don't bug me when I'm with my boyfriend."

"And I thought this was a study date," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm totally serious," I told her. "And you better not let Mom and Dad know that we were doing that in my room, or he'll never be allowed up here to study with me again!"

"Well, the only studying you were doing was on an inside job," She winked, which made me blush, "And besides, why shouldn't I tell them?"

"Well…" I tried coming up with something I can threaten her with. "Well, what were you doing today when you had thought I didn't notice you had snuck out?"

Her face paled. "How did you…"

I smiled. "Is it a deal then?" She glared at me.

"Fine," she grumbled as she walked away to her room, which was downstairs. I was the only one with a room upstairs.

I peeked down the staircase and called down, "Hey, Des, what _were_ you doing when you snuck out?"

She simply shrieked and slammed her door shut. I rolled my eyes, let out a giggle, and went back cuddling with Blake.

~Lainey~

"Are you ready?" asked Nicole.

"Uh… no?" I said.

"How about now?" she asked.

"No…"

"Now?"

"No"

"…How about now?"

"Okay."

"Great!" Nicole peeked at the boat. It looked like a pretty nice party boat that would definitely fit at least 200 people with _plenty_ of room. Maybe even 300.

"Where's Blake and Bella?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," admitted Nicole. "But we need them for this!"

A few minutes later, Blake shows up, saying he was preoccupied, and then another few minutes later, Bella shows up saying almost exactly the same thing. I narrowed my eyes at that. What were they both doing? And what if they were doing it… dare I think it… _together?_

No, I would not allow myself to think that Bella would lie like that and go out with Blake behind my back. But she did lie to Nicole about the Alex Thing… and she lied about her garage! And what if Blake's weird attitude lately had something to do with Bella? I hoped with all my heart that this wasn't true, although I couldn't stop my paranoid mind from jumping to conclusions.

"You guys all ready?" asked Nicole. We nodded.

Nicole started to devise our plan. "Okay, so," she started. "First, we'll need a ladder to get to the top of the boat… a big one…"

"Um, Nici?"

"Not now Bella! Anyways, Blake, you can go into that shed over there," she pointed towards a dark, run down shed next to some other big boats. "If you can't find a ladder, at least try to find a rope…"

"Nici…"

"Bella, let me finish! Anyways, then, you, Lainey, can go distract those guys over there watching the boats…"

"NICOLE!"

Nici turned to Bella. "What?" She asked in agitation.

"There's a ladder right there," She pointed towards a built in ladder. Nicole was silent.

"Or we could do that," she mumbled as she started to climb up it.

Once we all got on top of the ship except for Bella, who was to watch to make sure no one came onto the ship or near enough to see us. If she saw anyone try to come on board, she was to yell "Pistachio Ice Cream" (hey, it was the first thing we came up with) and we were all to hide beneath the deck.

I gave Blake a long kiss all of a sudden. He grinned when I pulled away. "What was that about?" he asked.

I grinned. He was still into it. _He isn't cheating on you silly, what were you thinking?_ I told myself. "Nothing. I'm just happy." I skipped away to look for something useful.

"Hey, check this out!" called out Nicole, loud enough for us to hear, but not loud enough to the guys on the ground who were supposed to be watching the boats (they get an F on that). I walked over hand in hand with Blake to see what she had found.

They were giant kegs of beer and a whole collection of wine bottles- full of course- probably for the party in two weeks, right behind the mini bar, which wasn't very mini if you ask me. There wasn't much there so you could tell more shipments would be coming in soon.

"How does this pertain to what we're doing?" Blake asked.

"I thought we could treat ourselves to a drink for all our hard work!"

"We haven't even been here for 2 minutes!" said Blake as he rolled his eyes.

"Besides," I said. "My parents would _kill_ me if I was drinking, and I've finally gotten on good terms with them. The only time I ever get to have drinks is when I'm at a very important party."

"Oh really?" said Nicole. "Then that video from Winter Break in Hawaii must have been fake?"

I blushed. "I thought I was drinking coca cola!"

"Wait," said Blake with a grin. "What happened?"

She was about to gush all the gory details that I honestly don't remember until I spoke up. "Tell him that and I'll kill you. And then strangle you. And then embarrass you in front of everyone."

She giggled. "Fine." We kept looking. Not much showed up after that, in fact we weren't very sure what we were looking for.

"Well I'm pooped," I said as I sat down at the mini bar. "I'm not sure if I even know what we're looking for.

"Well I found some nice hiding spots," said Nicole as she looked in a cooler we had also found, and took out a bottle of beer and four glasses. I rolled my eyes. She couldn't get me to drink it. "And I found a few private rooms in case someone needs to get away…" she winked at me. I blushed. A lot.

"Here you go!" said Nicole as she handed two of the glasses to Blake and me. She went over to the ladder to hand one down to Bella. To my surprise, Bella actually came up to sit down by us and drank it. I am pretty positive this is her first time _ever _with even a drop of alcohol in her system.

Nicole downed hers in seconds and I decided it wouldn't hurt to take a few sips. Blake went along the same lines.

After finishing with them, we set them right back in the clean dishes pile, like anyone would really care, and we headed down the ladder. Surprisingly no one showed up to bust us for being on the boat.

After saying our goodbyes, I headed for my house to get ready for me and Blake's first _official_ date. I was so excited!

~Lainey~

I looked in the mirror for the five hundredth time that night.

"You look fine," said Destiny as she had for the past half an hour. I have _no_ idea why I even let her be my fashion advisor.

I examined my makeup and touched it up with a little more light pink lipstick and some white eye shadow. Just then I heard a doorbell ring from downstairs and excitedly grabbed my white fringe purse and my wallet made of purple, black, and green plaid material, the only dark colored thing in my closet I owned. I then checked the mirror one last time to make sure everything looked okay.

I was wearing a white mid-thigh length spaghetti strap sundress with a red floral pattern that was belted along my chest with a light brown belt. I had a long necklace on, going down below the belt on my dress, with a few brown feathers on the end of it. My hair was straighter than ever and my side bangs were braided and pinned back with a white bobby pin. I wore my white high heels with three straps across the top of my foot that allowed me to be exactly as tall as Blake, since I usually was shy a few inches of him.

"All ready" I whispered before going downstairs. Destiny called out, "Don't get too crazy!" I just rolled my eyes. Not even her, the most annoying girl I know, could ruin this night for me.

I opened the door to see Blake… wearing a plaid shirt? I looked him up and down. He was wearing dress pants, but his shirt was so… un-dressy. My face fell.

"How do I look?" he asked. I didn't answer. Then for some reason he started to laugh. He unbuttoned the plaid shirt and set it in my house. Underneath was his tux. I rolled my eyes at his little joke and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Aw, that's all I get?" He fake-whined. I grinned and gave him a proper kiss. He smiles. "That's more like it." Then he looked me up and down. "And I think you look beautiful tonight."

I blushed. "Thank you. And so do you."

"Why thank you!" We walked towards his dad's car, which was really embarrassing that he had to drive us, but seeing as though we weren't a huge town and most really nice restaurants were at least 45 minutes away, we couldn't walk, and neither of us had the funds for renting a limo.

Then came the very long car ride where we had to be at least 5 inches away from each other, given that Blake's dad kept watching us from the mirror at the front of the car. Which wasn't uncomfortable at all. (Sarcasm, sarcasm!)

Finally, his dad dropped us off a few blocks away from the restaurant so that we could walk there together and not look like we were dropped off by our parents. That would be so embarrassing!

After dropping us off, Blake wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked towards the fancy restaurant. Once inside, we signed in and went to the outside patio. The nighttime air was nice and refreshing; the perfect night for a date.

Blake, like a true gentleman, pushed out the chair for me to sit in. I smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek before sitting down and looking over the menu. I looked for some sort of sea food- that way I would be guaranteed to like it, since I haven't yet found anything from the sea I won't eat. My dad IS a fisherman after all.

After choosing the shrimp pasta with fettuccini sauce, I scooted closer to Blake.

"Isn't this so nice?" I asked him as I squeezed his hand.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I'm so glad I chose this over…" His eyes widened ad I narrowed mine.

"What else was there for you to do?" I was starting to get suspicious as my earlier accusations showed up in my mind.

"Ummm…" He looked nervous.

"Blake, in a relationship, we need to trust each other fully and completely." He still didn't say anything, so I just went ahead and asked him.

"Are you secretly dating Bella?"

"What?" He asked, and then laughed. "Believe me Lainey, that's not even _close_ to what's going on!"

"So there _is_ something going on." I raised an eyebrow.

"No!" he protested. "I swear, it's not like that…"

"Then what is it? Because to me, you and Bella have both been acting pretty strange."

"I swear Lainey, I am NOT going out with Bella! I have you!"

"Why do I not believe you?" I said sarcastically.

Blake was going to protest until he looked past me and his jaw just about dropped to the floor. "Oh my god," he whispered.

I rolled my eyes at his attempt to distract me. "Blake, pretending you've seen something to make me look isn't going to work."

He gulped. "You want proof I'm not dating Bella? Then Look!" I sighed and turned, only to have mostly the same reaction as Blake. It was one of those moments where the only two words you think of are Oh and Shit.

Because there, right in front of me behind a glass wall on the inside of a restaurant, was Bella. And she wasn't alone. She was with a _guy._

Now this guy had something that rang a bell, and after going over conversations from the past few weeks I realized who it was.

_"Alex kissed me…"_

_ "I haven't seen Alex since he kissed me…"_

_ "Alex knows our secret…"_

Ohmygod. That guy was _Alex._ Alex, the guy Bella said she had ended things with, and the guy who she was now _secretly_ dating. It wasn't Blake, but it was _Alex._

I turned back around, my head spinning.

"I can't believe it," said Blake in bewilderment.

"Me neither." I thought about the situation. "We can't let her know we know about her and him."

"Why not?"

"Because she might choose him over us," I explained. "I know I was getting to the point where I was going to choose you over my friends when they said I couldn't see you anymore, so I fully believe there's a very big possibility of that happening with Bella. And I don't want to lose one of my best friends."

"I guess," he said, thinking it over. Feeling guilty, I leaned over and gave him a kiss.

"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions Blake," I said guiltily.

"It's okay Lainey," he said as he held my hand (so romantic!). "Besides, I should have told you straight away what's happening. I shouldn't have thought you'd be mad at me for hearing this."

"So there is something… happening?" I asked.

"Yes, but not what you think," he said. "I've been really busy lately because I got hired as a tutor."

"Blake! That's great news!" I exclaimed. "Why would you try to hide it?

"Well," he started. "Before you jump to conclusions, we've had enough of that for one night, know that I was getting paid a lot for this, and I couldn't turn it down. Like, literally, my mom wouldn't let me."

"Who are you tutoring?" I asked.

"Kristen McKinley."

I was silent for a minute. "What?" I asked in disbelief.

"Remember what I said, my mom told me I had to and besides, I'm getting paid $100 an hour for tutoring, so I try to squeeze in as much tutoring as possible."

"I would be mad," I admitted. "But I guess that if you actually told me, I can't be too mad. I, however, would be extremely pissed if I would have had to find this out from her. So thank you." He kissed my forehead. "You're welcome."

**(A/N: So, let's see how Bella's secret boyfriend thing progresses from here now that Lainey and Blake know the truth! And, the boat party sabotage is coming up… I can't wait! Now, I'd like to thank Marril96 for reviewing like everysingle one of my chapters! That's just awesome! To Marril96 also: My story will be longer than the original 26 episodes, and thank you for liking my story! ;-) And the whole thing where their eyes attracted Blake only had to do with the Full Moon. And no, they do not have "mermaid dust" LOL ;-P Well everyone, thanks for reading and don't forget to review! I love constructive criticism and I do a little dance every time I get a review. It literally makes my day! ;-) Wow I realize I make winky faces a lot ;-) Toodles!)**


	26. NP POV Abort Mission!

*Nicole Paige*

I positioned my ear buds in my ears as I washed the dishes in my house, with elbow-high waterproof gloves of course, getting pumped up for tonight.

I wish I knew then, what I know now

Wouldn't dive in, Wouldn't bow down

Gravity hurts, you made it so sweet

Till I woke up on, on the concrete!

Fallen from Cloud 9

Crashing from the high

I'm letting go tonight…

Tonight was a very important night for me. Tonight was the night where I will get my sweet, sweet revenge on Krissy.

The only downside to tonight was that it was a full moon, which hopefully wouldn't interrupt our revenge-ence. Wait, is that even a word?

After finishing the dishes and carefully taking off my gloves, I plucked the ear buds from my ears and set my iPod touch on my little table next to my bedside. Then I jumped on my bed to start my homework.

I first picked up my Algebra assignment, took one look at it, and set it aside. Then I picked up my Geography assignment, took one look at it, and set it aside. Then I picked up my Chemistry assignment, took one look at it and threw it across the room. Oh how much I hate Science!

Since all the "easy" (if you could call anything in school easy) homework was already finished from Study Hall today, I decided to just go downstairs and watch some TV.

I plopped on the couch with my cell phone and flipped channels as if I was possessed, not finding anything worth watching. With a sigh, I stood up and looked around the house.

"I'm so BORED!"I shrieked to the empty (as usual) house, my voice echoing off its green walls. I sat back down and sprawled myself across the couch, fanning myself, trying to cool myself down.

Luckily, my savior called right then. I snatched the phone from inside the couch cushion, where it had fallen into, in less than a millisecond and answered the phone. "Thank you!" I shouted before even asking who this was.

"Um, you're welcome," said Lainey, judging by the shrieks of her little sister in the background, on the other end. "Hey, I was just wondering if you were busy at the moment?"

"Yes!" I shouted to myself, happy that I finally wouldn't be bored. "I mean, no! No, I'm not busy, but YES, I'd love to do something."

"Good," sighed Lainey. "Because Blake's tutoring, I'm done with my homework, and this place is a wreck with Destiny back from her sleepover. You know how she gets when she's tired and cranky."

I rolled my eyes at that. "How about Bella? Is she doing anything?"

"Umm…" she sounded nervous, and I raised my eyebrows in suspicion. Although, of course, she couldn't really see me raise my eyebrows. "Well… I'm not sure." It was obvious she was lying, but I figured whatever reason she had for doing it must be a good one. "Anywho," she started again, quick to change the subject. "Do you mind if I come over right about now?"

"Sure!" I grinned. Finally! Something to do!

"Great!" She responded. "See you soon, bye!"

"Bye!" I said before hanging up and doing a little dance.

Minutes later, in came Lainey without even knocking on the door, since she's just cool like that.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked her.

"Oh, I have a few ideas," grinned Lainey, and I suddenly knew where this was heading. I groaned. I should've known the real reason she had wanted to come over.

"Lainey, no!"

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!"

"I'm sorry but I just don't do dresses and heels! Especially not heels, I'm not sure if I've worn them once in my life."

Her eyes popped out of her head. She looked more surprised than when she had found out she was a mermaid with powers. Typical Lainey for you. "You mean… you've never…" She stammered in disbelief. I rolled my eyes. "_Ever_… worn heels?" The end of her sentence came out in sort of a squeaking sound.

"Never have, and definitely never will…" I didn't even get to finish before Lainey was dragging me out of there by my hair. And I mean literally.

"Ouch, Lainey! What are you doing?!" I asked her as she shut my house's door behind me.

"I'm going to take you to the mall RIGHT NOW and get you a decent outfit for tonight," She said in a tone used my general sergeants. "I'm buying, and there will be no buts about it!" I honestly was a little scared of her, which didn't happen very often, so I decided the best I could do for my situation now was to convince her to get me something as "me" as possible.

But as we stood outside of the store Lainey was planning to go shopping in, I reconsidered. There was nothing even close to "me" in there!

Lainey shrieked with excitement. "This is going to be so much fun!" She giggled.

"Yes, because frilly red dresses and pink floral headbands are _so _fun," I said, dripping with sarcasm. But Lainey took it as a literal thing and replied with "I know!" and dragged me in there without my consent. Don't I have such amazing friends?

What I _really_ wanted to wear to Kristen McKinley's boat party tonight was way simpler than Lainey's idea of proper attire. I was willing to go in the only skirt I own, which was dark red, and the only frilly thing I owned, a simple white tank top with a bit of frill at the top. I was going to add _maybe_ some sparkly earrings, but high heels and party dresses were way off from what I wanted to wear. I looked through racks of dresses, my hopes of wearing something "okay" to the party tonight declining with every sparkly, minidress that I came across. I looked at the door and wondered how quickly I could make my exit and escape this horror, but reconsidered when I realized then Lainey would probably pick something even worse than what I see here in front of me and force me to wear it.

So, I held strong and went to the next rack, looking through rows upon rows of sequined, frilly, and floral dresses, all things in which I despised. I was seriously considering trying to leave again before Lainey stuffed at least 5 dresses into my arms.

"Go try those on," commanded Lainey. I sighed.

"Yes sir!" I marched over to the dressing room and, after grabbing one of those cards that say how many items of clothing you have, in my case 5, went into a changing stall. After shutting the door, I took a look at the clothing stacked in a pile and took a deep breath.

The first dress was a pretty color and I could see how people could like it, and I would like it, if it was on someone else on the cover of a magazine. The ruffles were funny around my waist and the fabric was incredibly uncomfortable. So definitely not this one.

The second dress was a light grey and was straight all the way down, and went down to my ankles. One look at it in the mirror and I wrinkled my nose. Not only were the sparkly designs made of white sequins on the top half way too girly, but the length made the entire dress just… weird.

The third dress actually looked sort of okay on the hangar, but on closer inspection once on my body, I realized, although it was red, which wasn't a bad color, and was a good length, there were pink sequins along the bottom hem. I frowned as I took in the flowery designs right above my knees. Did Lainey _really_ think I would wear this?

The fourth and fifth went pretty much the same, either the length was weird, the designs were weird, or it was just plain _weird._ With a sigh I returned the dresses to their hangars, a task that was harder than it looks, and put them on a hook outside of the stall door where a clerk would pick them up. I walked back to Lainey in defeat.

"Any of them work?" she asked as she was already starting a new pile for me to try on.

"Lainey, how about you pick things with a little less sparkles, a little less sequins, and a little less… well, everything you would wear." She frowned and tapped her chin with a finger as she took in the rows of dresses ahead of her. Then her face lit up. "I think I found the perfect one," she said in excitement as she handed me a dress and directed me towards the changing stalls again.

Once inside, I took a look at this dress. It was red, a good length, probably a bit shorter than my knees, had no sign of sequins or sparkles, and, upon turning it around to take a look at the back, there was a criss-cross pattern that connected the back. It looked like a pain in the butt to get on, but I had to admit it wasn't looking too bad.

After finally managing to get it on, I inspected myself in the mirror. Not bad. It was an off-the-shoulder dress, which definitely got my vote, and got tighter around my chest, a bit beneath my breasts. As I turned around in the mirror, I could tell, this was the one.

I happily put the dress back on the hangar and returned to Lainey as she paid for it, keeping her end of the bargain. I was overcome with joy at the fact the little shopping spree was over and done with.

The first thing Lainey said though as we exited the store was, "Onto the accessories!", and my hopes to leave this place finally were dashed.

As I glumly walked towards the accessory store a few stores away, Lainey was practitcally bouncing up and down. When we entered the store, it luckily didn't take as long as it did in the other store to find what I needed.

We found a pair of black lacey tights to accompany my dress, and some hoop earrings that Lainey convinced me to get. I was actually the one who walked up to the Hair section and wanted to get the black headband with red stripes on it, so we got that as well. Again I was glad our shopping trip was done, but of course forgot one critical thing: The Heels.

I gulped as I took a look at the death contraptions placed on display in front of me five minutes later. If I thought I was nervous before…

While I was writing my will inside my head, Lainey was bouncing up and down, looking as happy as a kid stuck in Disney Land. I would _never_ understand her.

The first pair of shoes we found were black and at least six inches tall. My face paled at the sight of them.

"Do I really have to wear these?!" I begged Lainey.

"Nicole, you're the shortest out of all of us," Thank you for bringing that up… "So heels are a _must_ for you." I sighed. There really was no way to change her mind.

I reluctantly tried on the death trap, with Lainey's help of course, and tried to stand up. My feet immediately gave in as I toppled over. Lainey was trying to be helpful by giving me pointers and helping me to straighten myself and balance, but I knew on the inside she was laughing her head off. She wasn't very good at hiding it.

"No," I said. "Just… no. I am not wearing these."

"O-kay," she said, scanning the store. Her eyes lit up as she found something and dashed across the store to grab it.

I sat down, took off the shoes, if you could even call these things shoes, and rubbed my ankles, which were getting quite a work out today. Before I could even get the courage to stand up again, Lainey was back with at least seven more pairs of heels, all ranging from at least four to six inches. I groaned. This was going to be a longer day than I imagined.

~Nicole~

45 minutes later, Lainey and I were sitting in chairs in the food court, me, the definition of exhaustion, Lainey, the definition of a little kid with too much sugar in their system . She was holding a few bags herself, since she had gone for a quick shopping trip in a few of her favorite stores while I was trying on shoes, and I had three bags, with the dress, the accessories, and a pair of bright red heels that were only three inches tall, the shortest Lainey would allow. I had to admit they were pretty nice, but it took a heck of a battle to get them. Lainey insisted on at least four inches, but I fought for these.

"So, what did you get?" I asked, exhausted, as I took in the various shops to buy food around me- ranging from Chinese to pizza to sandwich places to a mini Dairy Queen.

"Well," said Lainey as she took out her bags (my god, she had more than me!) and started taking things out as she talked about how amazing they were.

"I got a few accessories at that accessory store we stopped at, like this feather necklace," Lainey has been _obsessed_ with feathers lately. Seriously she has like 5 pairs of feathered earrings. I don't get the trend, honestly. "And then this silver charm bracelet, a few of these rings…" I sort of droned out the rest. I asked her about what she got expecting a simple overview, not a full-out show and tell.

"Don't you think?" asked Lainey as she poked my shoulder.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't you think this will go well with my dress tonight?"

I cocked my head as I took in the little bracelet made of white thread with small pink shells attached to it. I had to admit it did go well with her outfit she was going to wear tonight, which was a short, tight, strapless light cream colored dress that ended a few inches above her knees with a small and short light pink sweater. She was paring it with some cream colored heels, diamond studs, a cream colored head wrap she was going to use as a headband, and skin colored tights. I had this implanted in my memory forever, since Lainey went over it with Bella and me over a billion times. The bracelet would go well with it.

"Yeah, I think so," I commented.

"Me too," She nodded in agreement as she put the first few small accessory bags down and grabbed some of the larger bags. "These," she patted the bags, "Are essential for my new look."

"You're getting a new look?" I asked her as I raised my eyebrows.

"Yes," she said in a very serious tone. "I'm just getting so sick of my daily look, and I think it's time for a change in my life."

"So popping a tail every time you touch water isn't a big enough change for you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Haha, _so_ hilarious. I was thinking more along the lines of… this." She held out a few ripped out pages of a catalog magazine thingie from some place called… Delia's? I looked over the tribal prints and lacey over shirts and shrugged as I gave it back to her. "Okay."

She rolled her eyes again. "I don't even know _why _I came shopping with you of all people."

"Krissy's party?"

"Right." She sighed. "I should have brought Bella with us too though so we could keep this interesting."

"If she even wanted to do something with us," I mumbled.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Come on, you _can't_ tell me you haven't noticed!"

"Noticed _what?"_

"How… I don't know… _distant_ Bella's been from us lately. I feel like we've gone from being the three musketeers to being the two BFFS with that one awkward friend who won't hang out with us." I gave her a knowing look`. Lainey just fiddled with a bent straw that was discarded on the table top.

"Lainey," I said. "I can't be the only one weirded out by this!"

She dropped the straw and put her hands up in exasperation. "Nicole, maybe sometimes some people just don't want other people to know things!"

"So you're saying Bella has a secret?" I asked.

"No! I mean, I never really said that. Okay well I said something like that but not _that_ that. And besides, what would she have to hide? Not that I'm saying she has something to hide… " She looked up to see my raised eyebrows.

"Lainey you are such a bad liar," I snorted as I shook my head. She turned away and hid her face as I picked up my things. Then she grabbed her things, stood up, and walked away.

"Awkward," I mumbled to myself as I followed her.

~Nicole~

Music blared from speakers in Lainey's room as we prepared for the party. Giggles and shrieks ricocheted off the walls as we got into our outfits for the night. I admit it, it looked as if we were dressing for prom, but we took this party more seriously than we probably would prom itself. Okay no, I would take that more seriously, because I would actually enjoy shopping for prom things (as surprising as it sounds).

"I can't believe Lainey convinced you to get that dress!" said Bella with raised eyebrows as she examined herself in the mirror. She was wearing a mid-length straight light purple dress with matching clips for her hair, which was in a gorgeous bun. And the purple complemented her eyes amazingly (Lainey's words, not mine).

"Me neither," I mumbled.

Lainey turned around from the mirror where she stood in between Bella and me and rolled her eyes. "Don't doubt my powers." We all giggled as we walked away from the mirror, which made me giggle even more, since this all seemed like some teen movie to me. Too bad I didn't know it was going to turn into a seriously _screwed up_ teen movie.

~Nicole~

"Alright," said Lainey as we walked quickly towards the giant boat that hadn't yet sailed away, but was surely about to, which was why we were trying to get there quickly. "Remember the plan?"

"What plan?" I asked.

"Oh… right." She said as she sighed. "Damn I knew we were forgetting something."

"It's okay," said Bella. "We'll wing it."

"Right," I said sarcastically as we walked onto the stairs that had been set up near the boat. "Because _that_ always works." The song Sugar by Flo Rida booming from the boat covered up my sigh.

Once we reached the top and stepped over the side, we took a look around us.

"Woah," we said together at the first sight of the place. When we had come to investigate this place before when there weren't decorations or lights or stands or anything, we thought maybe with advanced knowledge of the place we could not waste time trying to find our way around. But I, and I'm sure Bella and Lainey, realized that with all of these strobe lights and banners and decorations, we would still be lost no matter how many times we would have checked the place out.

"Well," I said. "Still think we can 'wing it'?" Bella smacked my shoulder lightly.

"Well we'll have to try," said Lainey. She turned around. "Has anyone seen Blake? He was supposed to meet us here…"

"Hey!" we heard a shout from across the boat (a miracle really, since it was so loud).

"Speak of the devil," I whispered as he walked up to us. Lainey smacked me and I stuck out my tongue. Bella rolled her eyes.

"You guys were supposed to get here 7 minutes ago!" said Blake in exasperation.

"Wow, seven minutes!" said Bella as she made a shocked expression. "I'm _so_ sorry it took us _seven minutes_ longer to get here!" I gave Bella a suspicious look. Something was different about her. _I'm_ usually the one to deliver the sarcasm in this group.

Blake must not have noticed the sarcasm, or otherwise ignored it, because he still looked worried and aggravated because he looked over his shoulder and looked back at us with panic written all over his face.

"Blake… are you okay?" asked Lainey as she placed her hand on his arm. For some unknown reason, he flinched away and Lainey looked pretty confused. Although I think she connected the dots when Blake looked over his shoulder at…

Krissy.

Lainey lowered her hand and stared at her. Krissy sent a little finger wave to her before calling out Blake's name.

"What are you doing?!" I demanded as he started to walk over there.

"I need to…"

"What?" asked Lainey. "What would you possibly have to go talk to her about?"

"Well I am her tutor…"

"Seriously Blake, how many times are you going to use that excuse?" asked Bella with narrowed eyes.

Blake just sighed and walked towards her. I saw Lainey's eyes trail him as he stood next to Krissy, and she slid her hand in his back pocket.

Lainey turned towards Bella. "Do you really think it's an excuse?" she asked quietly.

"Of course!" she said with rolled eyes. "We're at a party, why would Krissy want to talk to him about algebra and chemistry? Besides, do you _notice_ how often he tutors her? Not even a five year old would need that much tutoring time to learn this stuff!"

"I never thought of that…" She trailed off.

"Alright," I said. "Let's not jump to conclusions. Blake may have some reason he's doing what he's doing that he just can't tell us yet. After all, we never told him the biggest secret of our life."

"Nicole, I seriously doubt Blake turns into a mermaid when he touches water and _that's _the reason he hangs out with her all the time."

"Besides," said Lainey as she took one more look at him. "I'm really hoping that his biggest secret has nothing to do with Kristen." She walked away and Bella and I exchanged knowing glances before following.

~Nicole~

"Hey!" I hissed at Blake. "I thought this was a revenge mission, not a chance to flirt!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked nervously, which I knew wasn't a good sign.

"Come ON!" I rolled my eyes. "For the last two hours you've been hanging around this bitch, while we're stuck thinking of ways to get revenge on her!"

"Well if it's your revenge then you won't need my help! So just stop bugging me about it!"

I just stared at him, not believing what he just said. "Wow," I spat at him. "I see you've had quite a change of heart." I started to walk away before I shot at him, "Jerk!" Even though her deserved a lot more for abandoning us like this. I marched back towards Bella and Lainey who were waiting at the bar for me.

"Well?" asked Lainey, a nervous wreck. "Why isn't he coming over to help us?"

After having to do the painful job of retelling how he basically told us it wasn't his problem, Lainey's face paled.

"Are-are you certain you didn't just hear him wrong?" she asked. "It is pretty loud in here…"

"Lainey, I'm telling you the truth."

She sat on one of the chairs by the minibar and stuffed her face into her hands on the table. After waiting at least five minutes she sat up and grabbed a shot glass from in front of someone else, since they were too busy to notice, and gulped it down.

"Lainey!" I said in shock as I grabbed her hand before she could grab another drink. "Getting drunk won't help!"

She rolled her eyes and with her other hand tapped the waiter on the shoulder. "I'd like anything with a lot of…" I put my other hand over her mouth. "Never mind," I said sweetly to him. He shrugged and walked over to another customer. I glared at her.

"What do you think you're doing?!" snapped Bella.

Lainey stared into her cup for a while before singing quietly, "I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose, fire away, fire away…" She exhaled with half shut eyes.

"What?" I asked her. I grabbed that shot glass and smelled it, immediately pulling away. Bella smelled it too and dropped it, it was so strong. Then she turned to Lainey.

"Oh Lainey…"

"Ricochet! You take your aim…" She made a little gun with her hand and "shot" Blake. Now it was my turn to stuff my face in my hands. Bella did the same.

But when we looked up, Lainey was gulping down a tall glass of… something. Bella immediately took it away and grabbed her arm.

"What are we going to do with her?" she asked in defeat.

"I don't know," I said honestly.

Bella let go of her arm and leaned against the counter. "Well," she said. "I remember that there were some rooms where… Oh no." Bella was staring at Lainey in horror.

"What is it now?" I looked at her and groaned. Lainey had a familiar looking haze over her eyes.

"She saw the moon," I sighed.

"How?" asked Bella.

"Probably when she got that drink." I considered slamming my head against the table but that would hurt so I didn't.

"Lainey…" I turned to talk to her but she was gone. "What the…" I looked around. "Where is she?"

"I spy with my little eye…" Bella pointed towards Blake, who was finally without Krissy by his side for only the third time this evening. Now he was standing next to Lainey.

"Crap!" I shouted as I ran over to her.

"…so if _that's_ what you think, then SCREW YOU!" shouted Lainey at Blake. "We're OVER!" Suddenly the boat started to rock a bit, surely because of Lainey.

"Lainey, stop!" said Bella.

"Blake, you are such a [EXPLICIT CONTENT]!"

"Woahhhh." I said. Bella whistled. I had never heard Lainey say those kind of things. And she was still saying them. At first I wasn't sure why Blake was defending himself, especially since he looked so heartbroken, but then he cast a hateful glance at Kristen, who gave him a thumbs up.

Okay I'm officially confused.

Then I heard a very loud smack as Lainey slapped Blake across the cheek. And even though that was something to worry about, the next sound was simply terrifying. A splash. Lainey had jumped over the edge.

"Shit!" I screamed as Bella and I ran to the edge of the boat, where Lainey was nowhere to be seen. I cast my own hateful glance at Blake.

"Are you just going to stand there?" I shrieked.

"There's nothing to do now!" he said. "She's already jumped over the edge."

"Wow," snorted Bella. "So now you don't even care about our secret anymore." Bella and I held hands as we looked around, making sure no one was looking and stood on the edge of the boat. I took a look at Blake.

"The only thing you can do now is come to meet us at Mako Island." Then we jumped in.

As we sped away towards Mako a million thoughts ran through my head. How only hours ago I was obsessing over how wretched the attire would be for tonight, but now we're off to save our heartbroken, moonstruck best friend… heartbroken by _Blake_ of all people. I mean, he was the nicest guy I thought I had ever met! Now… I'm not so sure.

After a while, Bella and I popped up for air. We had looked in the moon pool, and realizing we must have gone ahead of her somehow, we went to look around in the ocean more.

"Where is she?" I asked.

Then we both heard bloodcurdling screams from inside the moon pool. We quickly dove back under.

**(A/N: Hola my little fishes! Sorry it's been taking such a long time to get this up! There's been school shopping and my mermaid show on youtube and lalala… well it's up now! Also guys, thanks so much for all of the reviews! It means so much to me! :-D Hey, this time, instead of giving a little hint about what the next chapter will be like, I'm going to give a little sneak peek! Read… if you dare! ;))**

(Chapter 27 in Lainey's POV)

Walls were spinning around me. I wasn't even sure where I was. All I could see was a fuzzy haze. All I could hear was a faint hum. And all I could feel was utter pain. Heartbreaking pain.

I let out a scream, which came out muffled in my brain. MAKE IT STOP! I said louder in my thoughts than I ever could say aloud. Tears poured out my eyes, dripping down my numb, lifeless face. To anyone watching me I probably had a normal looking straight face. But on the inside I was thrashing around, screaming, trying to resist the urge to go back to the boat and use my power to rip it to pieces, Blake along with it. If I had Bella's power right now, everyone alive would be… not alive. The world would be a ball of fire.

I felt like I was trapped in a box, and I desperately wanted to get out. The alcohol must make everything not right to me, it even made my thoughts fuzzy. If I could, I would kill myself right now. That's how messed up I am.

I let out a sob as my whole body quivered. I tried breaking out of the box, but nothing would work. No matter how loud I screamed, I could only hear a soft hum. I felt trapped, and all of my feelings have been let out of the box except for the pain of Blake's traitorous actions, which seemed to be magnified at least 1000 times. I didn't think I could handle it.

_Kill me now, kill me now, kill me nowwwwww!_

I let out one more bloodcurdling scream with more power than any of the others, but it still was soft and quiet. So I cried until everything went black.


	27. LW POV Betrayals and Lies

*Lainey Woods*

Walls were spinning around me. I wasn't even sure where I was. All I could see was a fuzzy haze. All I could hear was a faint hum. And all I could feel was utter pain. Heartbreaking pain.

I let out a scream, which came out muffled in my brain. MAKE IT STOP! I said louder in my thoughts than I ever could say aloud. Tears poured out my eyes, dripping down my numb, lifeless face. To anyone watching me I probably had a normal looking straight face. But on the inside I was thrashing around, screaming, trying to resist the urge to go back to the boat and use my power to rip it to pieces, Blake along with it. If I had Bella's power right now, everyone alive would be… not alive. The world would be a ball of fire.

I felt like I was trapped in a box, and I desperately wanted to get out. The alcohol must make everything not right to me, it even made my thoughts fuzzy. If I could, I would kill myself right now. That's how messed up I am.

I let out a sob as my whole body quivered. I tried breaking out of the box, but nothing would work. No matter how loud I screamed, I could only hear a soft hum. I felt trapped, and all of my feelings have been let out of the box except for the pain of Blake's traitorous actions, which seemed to be magnified at least 1000 times. I didn't think I could handle it.

_Kill me now, kill me now, kill me nowwwwww!_

I let out one more bloodcurdling scream with more power than any of the others, but it still was soft and quiet. So I cried until everything went black.

~Lainey~

I wasn't sure how much time has passed, but the next thing I knew, I was in the moon pool, water bubbling around me, a familiar tingle spreading through my body, and little sparks floating towards the full moon above me.

"Lainey?" asked a voice above me. I turned to see Bella and Nicole sitting on the edge. "Are you okay?" Bella asked.

I was more than okay. I could hear, I could see… and I could feel! You couldn't even imagine how good it felt to be able to have the horrible pain of whatever Blake did out of my heart. Maybe not all the way out… but it was at least somewhat out. Actually, I didn't even remember what I was so heartbroken over. The whole experience of me being moonstruck felt like a dream to me.

This feeling of relief that I had escaped that box was the only thing I noticed at first as I addressed Bella's question. "I'm amazing! Thank you guys for…" My face scrunched up. What exactly did they do? I couldn't even remember what had happened today, besides the awful pain in my heart and the horrible emotional box I was crammed in.

Another thought also occurred to me. "Wait… why am I not moonstruck?" I looked up to still see the moon, passing over the volcano.

"We're thinking that if you're in the moon pool while your moonstruck, it lifts the effects," said Nicole. "Looks like we've found a loophole for the whole mermaid madness thing."

"How did I even get moonstruck in the first place?"

"When you were drinking at the minibar you must have seen the moon's reflection in your cup."

"Wait, I was _drinking?!"_ I asked in disbelief. This as when the relief really started to wear off and more questions surfaced. I started to notice what Bella and Nicole were wearing.

"What's with the dresses?"

"You mean… you don't remember?" asked Nicole in shock. I creased my forehead as I tried to remember.

"The last thing I remember is calling Nicole and asking if she was busy… I don't remember the rest…" I looked up at them for answers.

Nicole stuffed her face in her hands. "Ughhh…" she groaned before turning to Bella. "You have to tell her."

"Tell me what?" I asked.

"No way!" said Bella. "You tell her!"

"Tell me _what_?"

"Please?" pleaded Nici. "I had to tell her on the boat before…"

"Yeah but she doesn't remember it!"

"That doesn't make it easier to tell her!"

"GUYS!" I shouted, which finally got their attention. "What are you talking about?!"

They exchanged nervous glances before explaining.

~Lainey~

"No…" I protested, shaking my head."You're lying. Blake wouldn't do that… He wanted revenge on Krissy as much as we did…"

"That's not what he said," pointed out Bella.

I thought about this. "I'll go talk to him," I concluded. "Maybe this is all a misunderstanding or something."

"Well you're not going to be able to get back onto the boat. It's already off from the dock," said Nicole.

"I'll find some way to get to him." I was about to dive underneath the water before Bella interrupted.

"Wait," she said. "We did tell Blake to meet us here, so what if shows up here somehow?"

"Something tells me that he won't come," said Nicole. "But if he does, we'll be waiting for him."

"Thanks," I said with a smile before sinking below the surface of the water. I quickly sped away towards the boat- which I needed to still find, since I had no memory of where it was.

After a few minutes, I finally found the large vessel, on the opposite side of Mako Island, which confused me. What would the boat be doing there?

I swam slowly towards the boat, which was actually stopping right next to Mako. My eyes bulged almost completely out of my head as I realized that guests were getting off of the boat and heading onto the island.

I had to stop this. I wasn't sure how, but I would.

I swam up to the boat, as close as I could without being seen, and saw someone get off the boat that brought back a little memory of a few hours ago.

It was Blake, walking off the boat, looking as guilty as hell. I've never seen him like this. If I didn't know any better I would have thought he was going to either cry or smash something. Or both.

After everyone got off the boat and it was docked, I rose above the surface and floated to the other side of the boat, where I could get onto the boat using the ladder… somehow.

When I reached the ladder, I thought maybe I could climb up just using my arms, but since I still had a little of the wooziness from the alcohol Bella and Nicole had told me I had drunk, it was much harder.

"Crap…" I said as I got my arm stuck in between one of the steps and something that was sticking out of the boat. I tried pulling, but it pinched my skin and I gasped as a little trickle of blood oozed out. I pulled more slowly this time, but it wouldn't come out. So I was left there, my tail in full sight of anyone who would come back on the boat, and hanging from the ladder by only one arm.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming my way. I panicked, trying again to pull my arm out. A few tears trickled down my face as I pulled, only making myself bleed more. I let out a short cry before immediately covering my mouth.

"Lainey?" said a familiar voice above me.

I looked up into the eyes of none other than Blake.

"Blake!" I said, which came out in sort of a gasp, since blood was still oozing out of my arm.

"Are you stupid coming back here!?" He demanded. I rolled my eyes.

"No, but I am bleeding…" I winced as if to prove I indeed was bleeding. It was now dripping down my arm slowly.

"Oh my god!" He finally saw it and looked over his shoulder, as if to make sure no one was watching. Then he grabbed my arm and maneuvered it out of the way of danger before picking me up out of the water and onto the boat. He grabbed some paper or something to wrap around my arm to stop the bleeding, and cleaned up the rest with some bottled water found on a trashed table next to him.

"I'll be right back with some towels," he said as he dashed towards the front of the boat.

I just lied down, waiting for him, and pressing on the bleeding scratches I had given myself. Then I thought of something.

If I can control water, couldn't I just lift the water off of myself? Worth a try…

But when I _did_ try, something weird happened. Instead of lifting water, I felt a breeze sweep by me and literally _lift_ me into the air. I shrieked as I stayed floating there, winds keeping me a few feet above the floor boards of the boat. Blake must have heard the shriek because he came rushing back with the towels.

"What the…" He didn't know how to respond to seeing me float there. When I returned my hand to normal, I dropped onto the boat.

"Ow…" I said. Blake ran to my side and inspected me for any bruises.

"It looks like you're fine," he said. "But how did you do that?"

"I… I don't know." I really didn't. "All I did was the movement to make water move, and suddenly a big gust of wind lifted me off my feet, er, tail." I looked up at him for answers but, even being the smarty he is, was just as lost as me.

"We'll figure it out later," he said, dismissing the subject as he started to dry myself off. For a minute I considered trying to help my lifting the water, but remembered the consequence and decided not to.

"Besides," continued Blake. "I need to get back to the party…"

"Why?" I asked as I grabbed a towel and dried off my hair. "What's so important there?"

He started to dry me off much more slowly, and then stopped.

"Why are you talking to me again?" he asked. "I thought you never wanted to see me again."

"I said that?" I said in wonder. Nicole and Bella must have not heard that part. "I'm sorry Blake, I was drunk and moonstruck…"

"I know," he said as he continued to dry me off. "But maybe you were right." My legs came back to me and I stood up.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" he took a deep breath. "Maybe we should be… over…" He looked at me nervously. I blinked a few times, and then started laughing.

"Oh Blake, you can be so silly!" I laughed some more. "Honestly, you need to come up with some better jokes…" He touched my shoulder and looked at me seriously. I stopped laughing.

"Lainey, I'm being totally serious. We should just end this." There was no sign of a little smile hinting that this was all a joke.

"You can't be serious!" I said, pulling away from him. "After _everything_ we've been through!"

"Lainey, please, don't make this any harder, I have very good reasons…"

"Oh, really! And what are they?!"

"I just need you to trust me. I can't tell you now…"

I pushed him away from me. "You are the biggest jerk I've ever met!" I yelled at him. I would have continued to yell at him, if I hadn't heard someone coming towards us.

"Oh my god," said Blake. "It's Krissy!" I rolled my eyes.

"So wh-" I didn't get to finish. Blake pushed me into an empty room next to us and shut the door in my face.

"What's going on?!" I tried asking him through the door.

"Hey, Krissy!" said Blake in an all too cheerful tone.

"Who's here with you?" she snapped. "I heard voices!"

"No one!" He said. "No one's here but me. I just came to get those lights for you…"

What was Blake doing getting things for her? I leaned in closer to hear better and opened the door just enough so that I could see what was going on.

"Its okay sweetie, I'll have someone else get them." She smiled and rested her arm on his shoulder. He made no weird face at her like he usually does, which was odd. But what came next _really_ was odd.

Krissy leaned in and kissed Blake right on the lips for a full five seconds. And each of those seconds that he didn't pull away, I felt agony rip through my body.

She finally pulled away and smiled. "You did what you had to do," she said before kissing him again.

I looked at my hands and thought of that blast of wind from a few minutes ago, and then looked at them kissing again, really getting into it. Without even thinking, I shot my hand out in front of me, which blew them all the way across the boat.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I heard Krissy shout. I took the time where they were there to get off the boat and onto land.

I ran towards the party, where neither Blake nor Krissy were yet. When I got there, people were setting up strobe lights.

I sat down on a bench that was set up deeper into the jungle where people probably went to make out or something and buried my face in my hands. I tried not to cry as the horrible image of Blake kissing Krissy kept on showing up in my mind.

When I looked up, I saw Krissy holding hands with Blake, heading over this way. I was about to get up to leave, until I realized Blake was starting to walk back towards the party and Krissy was walking into the jungle more than I was. Wondering what she was doing, I followed her.

After a few minutes, I realized I was in a familiar place. Krissy was heading towards the rock where I had fallen into all those months ago and became a mermaid.

What I really wanted to do to that girl was use my powers so explode her heart but protecting the secret came before revenge.

"Hey! Krissy!" I yelled out as I ran up to her.

She jumped a bit before turning around. "Oh. Hi." She flipped her hair. "What are you doing following me?"

"I wasn't."

"Oh really?" She rolled her eyes. "It's okay, I get that you're mad at me. Really, I tried telling him, but he insisted on keeping it a secret…"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Well, when we started seeing each other, I wanted him to break up with you first so that he wasn't cheating on anybody, but he insisted on not telling you." She gave me the most fake sympathetic look ever. "He didn't want you to get hurt."

_Surrre._ I rolled my eyes inside my head. Didn't want me to get hurt… as if I could believe that. "Look, we're over, it's over, no big deal."

"Oh, well good," she smiled sincerely (as if) and pats my shoulder. "I wouldn't want you to be… heartbroken or anything."

I seriously was considering knocking her out unconscious. "Right," I said as I rolled my eyes.

She shrugged and turned around and continued walking towards the rock. "Woah," I said as I grabbed her shoulder, stopping her from continuing any further. "What are you doing?"

"Why do you even care?" she asked in annoyance.

"It's just… aren't you going to miss the party? What will people think if you bail?

"You know what, it's my party, and I can do what I want." She walked closer to me making me feel really small and cowardly. "So stop asking questions you ugly whore who can't accept the fact your ex wants nothing to do with you!"

I brought my hand up and smacked it across her cheek really hard. "You bitch!" I screamed in her face before pushing her to the ground. She looked at the dirt that had spilt on her dress, scoffed and looked back up at me. "You don't know what you just did." She stood."

"No, _you_ don't know what you just did," I said. "If I were you, I wouldn't be messing with things that are out of your control. Someday, something bad, something unexplained, might happen to you." I focused on a puddle behind her. "Now wouldn't that be tragic, wouldn't it?"

She laughed, not at all threatened. "You don't know who you're dealing with," she snapped. "I know things…"

"Good for you!" I discreetly controlled a coil of water from behind her. It rose higher and higher until it was right above her head.

"No, Lainey, I know things about _you_." I lowered the coil.

"What do you mean?"

"I _mean_," she stepped closer. "If you want some things to stay a secret, you should know that I know some things that you might not want other people to know. And if you want those things to _stay_ a secret, then leave me and Blake alone." I dropped the coil into the puddle.

"Like what?"

"Excuse me," she said harshly as she walked by me, pushing me to the side.

I watched her walk away and then turned towards the rock. What was she talking about? What did she know about me? Could she… maybe, just maybe… know about us being… mermaids?

_No way,_ I thought to myself. She must be talking about something else. _But what?_

In desperation, I ran to the rock and jumped down the hole. Once I hit the sandy floor I immediately ran to the pool. "Guys!" I yelled as I jumped up the steps and towards them.

"Wha…" I heard Nicole mumble as she woke up from takin a nap in the water. "Wait, what's going on?"

"What happened?" asked Bella. "Did you talk to Blake?"

I sighed. "Sort of…" I told them the happenings from the past 45 minutes, and they were just as shocked and confused as I was.

"You mean…Blake and Krissy…" Nicole was trying to make this make at least a little bit of sense, which was looking impossible right about now.

"No, no way," said Bella as she shook her head. "Blake wouldn't do that. He must have some… I don't know, ulterior motive or something…"

"Bella, sometimes people go out because they want to, not for some ulterior motive," I snapped. "Why? Do _you_ know someone who's dating someone for a motive like that?"

"I'm not sure what you mean…"

"Oh, it's okay," I said in anger. "If you didn't want to tell us that you were dating Alex, that's fine!" I suddenly felt enraged. Not necessarily at Bella, but I needed to yell at _someone_ for _something_.

"WHAT?!" shrieked Nicole and Bella at the same time.

"What are you talking about?" asked Bella.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" I said in exasperation. "And I can't believe you would keep that from us! You're just like Blake!"

"No I'm not!" she shouted.

"Oh really?" I said sarcastically. Nicole was just looking at the two of us fight, confused.

"Lainey, I didn't secretly go out with him and cheat on him like your worthless boyfriend did!" She shouted. The cave was silent for a moment.

"Wow," I said softly. "I can't believe you two."

"Me?" asked Nicole. "What did I do?!"

"Well you won't even stand up for me!" I said. "And you were the one who kept up my hopes that Blake wasn't cheating on me, only to have them dashed!" I crossed my arms. "So this is partly your fault!"

"I can't believe you!" she said in amazement. "Blaming ME for trying to help! How shallow can you get?!"

"Because the world only revolves around Lainey!" said Bella, siding with Nicole.

"What I can't believe is that you guys are seriously ganging up against me on this one!" I said, hurt. "Of all the times, this would be the worst! A time when I actually need your help!"

"Well you're the one who started it!" said Nicole.

"Well I'm finishing it!" I yelled before jumping into the pool. Once I became a mermaid I sped off, not even knowing where I was going. Just that I needed to get away from all of this.

As the ocean water blasted past me, I tried to sort this out. Blake's treachery, Nicole and Bella's abandonment, my weird new wind power, and that strange moment between Krissy and me.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what Nicole and Bella were so mad at me for. I mean sure, I might have been a little harsh, but they should understand that I'm going through a lot right now! I just found out my boyfriend was cheating on me, I just found a new power that I had no idea how to control, _and_ Krissy somehow knows something about me that apparently I don't want to be found out?! _I'M SO CONFUSED! _

I eventually started swimming towards the small beach, not sure where I was going to go. It was around 4 in the morning, and the moon would be setting soon.

I got to the beach and waited for myself to dry off. Once I did, I ran towards my house, the only place I could think of to go.

But as soon as I opened the door, I realized I shouldn't have come.

"Lainey?" said Destiny as she yawned and rubbed her eyes. _Shiiiii-_

"Lainey!" she looked me up and down, and then looked at the stairs which led to my bedroom… where my family thought I was. "How… And what's with the…" she looked at my dress and a sly grin appeared on her face. "You snuck out to go to a party didn't you?" she asked as she crossed her arms.

"Ummm…"

"I knew it!" she cried out with a huge grin.

"Sshh!" I said harshly. "You'll wake up mom and dad!"

"So what?" she asked. "Maybe I should!"

"Okay what do you want?" I sighed. If only I had come in through the back door…

"Hmm…" thought Destiny. "How about you give me your new romper?"

"Fine," I sighed as I started to walk up the steps.

"The floral one." I stopped.

"No. Way!" I turned back around and walked back down the steps. "That's my favorite one!"

"Well, do you care more about that romper or this secret?" she asked.

"I just bought that romper!" I protested. "And besides, I bought it with those brown ankle boots, and they only go with that romper and my lace dress!"

"Well then wear the lace dress with it!"

"I can't, because I need to use that new belt that comes with the romper for it, and they both look all wrong without the belt!" I said, exasperated. "Come on Des, can't you cut me some slack?! I just got DUMPED for crying out loud!"

"Wait, you got DUMPED?!" she asked in disbelief. I sighed.

"Yes, laugh about it if you want…"

"So you mean…Blake…"

"Yes!" Blake!" I exclaimed.

She thought for a little while. "Fine. The purple one." I let out a sigh of gratitude.

"Sure," I walked back up the stairs, grabbed the romper, and tossed it to Destiny. She whispered "thanks" before going back to her room.

I shut the door behind me and walked slowly over to my bed. I sat down and took off my shoes, tossing them into my open closet. I grabbed the hem of my dress and pulled it over my head, tossing it into my hamper. Then I reached into a drawer and grabbed a floral ruffled cami (all part of my new look) and rolled-up light blue shorts and slipped them on. I would have put on pajamas and slept for a few hours, but I was so confused and so many thoughts were racing through my mind, I couldn't sleep.

I sat on my bed and turned on my lamp, its golden yellow glow floating in a halo around the lightbulb. The morning light was just peeking up above the horizon, also adding to the light in the room, even though it was dim.

I walked to the window and opened it all the way, feeling the cool morning breeze float through my hair. I could smell the salt all the way from the ocean and I wished to be there. I wondered where Nicole and Bella were as well.

I paced back and forth for a while, just thinking. About half an hour later, my phone buzzed.

I sighed and grabbed it off my shelf next to my bed, taking one look at the screen before setting it back down. I was in no mood to talk to someone right now, especially _that_ someone.

Five minutes later, my phone buzzed again. I checked and it was the same person. _Ignore_.

Another five minutes later, my phone buzzed yet _again_. In anger, I picked up the phone and answered. "Blake stop calling me!"

"Come on Lainey, just try to listen to me, _please_…"

"I think you lost your right to speak when you _kissed_ my worst enemy!"

"That's what I'm trying to talk to you about!"

"No, really?" I asked. "I thought you were here to talk about politics! Blake, I don't want to hear excuses."

"This isn't an excuse just…" I heard a swishing sound in the background.

"Blake… are you in the _bathroom?!"_

"It's the only place I can talk without Krissy finding out!"

"Does she have a problem with you talking to me?!" I thought about that. "Wait, never mind, of course she does." I ran my fingers through my hair. "Blake just tell me why you called."

"I just needed to say that I'm doing this for you…"

I laughed. "For me? You cheated on me… for _me?!"_

"It's not like that…"

"Blake I think that's _exactly_ what it's like!"

"No, just listen!" He took a breath. "If I wouldn't have, Krissy…"

"Blake?!" I heard a voice in the bathroom. "Are you talking to someone in there?!" He groaned on the other end.

"No!" he shouted to her. "I'll be right out!" He brought the phone to his face and whispered. "I'm sorry Lainey." And then he hung up.

I stared at the phone confused before setting it down on my bed. I plopped down next to it and groaned. Why did everything have to be so confusing?!

I rolled onto my belly and grabbed the phone again. I needed some support, and I could at least _try_ to get a hold of Nici and Bella.

I tried both of them, but no answer, which either meant they were swimming or ignoring me. Either one would be believable. I was a little harsh with them.

Having nothing to do, I went downstairs quietly and looked through the cupboards for a snack. I found a carton on Rocky Road Icecream, and although I knew I shouldn't, I did. I grabbed the carton and a spoon and walked back upstairs.

I turned on the radio and the song _Because of You_ by Kelly Clarkson, which made this sad moment for me even sadder.

_Because of you I never strayed too far from the sidewalk…_

_Because of you I stayed on the safe side so I don't get hurt…_

Soon enough, tears started trickling down my face. The sun started to rise and I curled up in my bed, listening to my sad song playlist on repeat. The tub of Rocky Road was empty, and soon enough so were my eyes. So for the next few hours I just stayed there, still.

**(A/N: Wow this one was really long! Sorry it took so long lol! And I bet you didn't see Blake's surprise coming! Speaking of his surprise, here's a little sneak peek of the next chapter…**

(Blake's POV)

I stared out the window of my room, fighting back tears. Lainey was furious at me, and for a good reason. If it was Lainey in my position, I don't think I would forgive her either.

But the thing Lainey couldn't see was that I was doing this for _her!_ If only I would have had time to explain…

"Blaaaake!" called out an annoying voice from the other room. I sighed and faked a smile as I turned around to see Krissy leaned up against the doorway. "I had _wondered _where you had gotten off to!" She came to sit down by me, cuddling into my arms. I wanted to puke. "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving the party?"

_Because I hate you,_ I thought in my mind. But I couldn't say that to her, unless I wanted… I shuddered, not wanting to think about what would happen if I stopped going out with her.

"Oh Blake, are you cold?" she asked, acknowledging my shudder as a sign of me being cold, not a sign of me hating every inch of her.. "Here, let me get you warm again…" She leaned forward and gave me a kiss. And although I really tried to make it a nice kiss, she frowned and pulled away.

"Blake, just stop," she spat. "You aren't even _trying _to kiss me!"

"I'm sorry," I said quickly before leaning in again. She refused my kiss and stood a good three feet from me looking me up and down.

"You know what?!" She snapped. "I know what's going on. You still want her don't you?!" I looked down guiltily.

"Answer me!" she shouted.

"Yes," I whispered. She walked up to me and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at her.

"Well get this into your head, Blake," she pulled my face close to her furious one. "You are with ME now! And you better enjoy it!" She pushed me back and walked towards my window, her back towards my face. "Unless… you want a certain someone to know your pathetic ex-girlfriend's secret…" She turned to me. "That isn't what you want, is it?"

"No!" I said quickly.

"Good." She smiled and leaned in, giving me another kiss. This time I made it real.

As we really got into it, I thought about Lainey. Maybe… maybe if I pretended I was kissing her, this would become… easier?

_No,_ I thought as I continued to kiss her. It wouldn't make it any more easier. _Because she isn't Lainey._ And no matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop this from feeling wrong. Because it _was_ wrong. On so many levels.

_Well,_ I thought. _At least her secret is safe. For now._

**Hmmm… I wonder what's going on here?! ;) You'll just have to wait to find out… the next chapter should be up within the next few weeks. Although on the 4****th**** of September I'm starting school, so I should be a bit busy with that. I can't believe summer went by so fast! By the way, I don't own the song Because of You (duhhh) but I just thought it was a really sad song that fit the mood of this. Hey guys, I really would like some reviews! I'm trying to get to 50 reviews and it would be great if I could get there before I upload the next chapter! I'd also like to thank Marril96, who takes the time to review each and every one of my chapters, which I really appreciate, and StormChaser24, who reviewed as well! There are some others that I'm not sure whether they reviewed the last chapter or the one before, like h2olover and 6. Thanks to you guys too! Well, I'm going to continue to write this next chapter since I want to get it up before school starts, so…bye! ;D )**


	28. BC POV Mistakes After Mistakes

*Blake Christopher*

I stared out the window of my room, fighting back tears. Lainey was furious at me, and for a good reason. If it was Lainey in my position, I don't think I would forgive her either.

But the thing Lainey couldn't see was that I was doing this for _her!_ If only I would have had time to explain…

"Blaaaake!" called out an annoying voice from the other room. I sighed and faked a smile as I turned around to see Krissy leaned up against the doorway. "I had _wondered _where you had gotten off to!" She came to sit down by me, cuddling into my arms. I wanted to puke. "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving the party?"

_Because I hate you,_ I thought in my mind. But I couldn't say that to her, unless I wanted… I shuddered, not wanting to think about what would happen if I stopped going out with her.

"Oh Blake, are you cold?" she asked. "Here, let me get you warm again…" She leaned forward and gave me a kiss. And although I really tried to make it a nice kiss, she frowned and pulled away.

"Blake, just stop," she spat. "You aren't even _trying _to kiss me!"

"I'm sorry," I said quickly before leaning in again. She refused my kiss and stood a good three feet from me looking me up and down.

"You know what?!" She snapped. "I know what's going on. You still want her don't you?!" I looked down guiltily.

"Answer me!" she shouted.

"Yes," I whispered. She walked up to me and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at her.

"Well get this into your head, Blake," she pulled my face close to her furious one. "You are with ME now! And you better enjoy it!" She pushed me back and walked towards my window, her back towards my face. "Unless… you want a certain someone to know your pathetic ex-girlfriend's secret…" She turned to me. "That isn't what you want, is it?"

"No!" I said quickly.

"Good." She smiled and leaned in, giving me another kiss. This time I made it real.

As we really got into it, I thought about Lainey. Maybe… maybe if I pretended I was kissing her, this would become… easier?

_No,_ I thought as I continued to kiss her. It wouldn't make it any more easier. _Because she isn't Lainey._ And no matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop this from feeling wrong. Because it _was_ wrong. On so many levels.

_Well,_ I thought. _At least her secret is safe. For now._

~Blake~

I walked along the park's edges trying to clear my head the next morning. I had just left from the Marine Park, where I was just supposed to drop off my resume but took much longer because my mom wanted to talk to some people there who could tell her about some extra science classes for me to take. The ones I was already taking now were actually pretty fun, but doubled my homework. It was amazing I still found time to help Krissy with _her_ homework.

_Krissy…_ I sighed. That girl has got to be the most horrible, treacherous, foul human being (if you could even call her that) alive. And because of a silly mistake, I now have to pay.

_Flashback to two days before the boat party…_

I walked up to one of the marine labs at the Marine Park, slipping in unnoticed. You really would have thought there would be better security systems here. I walked up to one of the microscopes and took out a scale of Lainey's I had found at the moon pool the other day. Or at least, it _was_ a scale. Now that it was dry, it was a small patch of dead skin.

I grabbed a scalpel and some tweezers, cutting off just a little bit of the skin sample, and sticking it on a slide. I slid it underneath the microscope and, after adjusting it a bit, took a look at the molecular structure.

On a small computer next to the microscope it blew up what the molecular structure looked like, so I could easily see that their skin was slightly different. In a hospital, it would be overlooked luckily. I then took a small eyedropper and was about to put a drop of water on it when someone came in through the door.

"Hello?" asked a female voice. I dropped the eyedropper and scrambled up to look at her, hiding the microscope behind my back.

"Oh! Uh, hi!" I said nervously to the tan dark haired women wearing a white lab coat.

"This area's off limits to the public," she said with a smile. "So I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Ummm… right!" I packed the skin sample into a small white box and stuffed it into my school bag. "And you are?" I asked, not trying to draw attention to the sample I had.

"Dr. Owens," she said as she set down some manila folders on a white table next to me. I nearly choked on my spit (I know that sounds gross).

"Wait, you mean… _the_ Dr. Owens?!" I asked, gaping. "The famous marine biologist Dr. Owens who's been stationed near here?! The Dr. Owens who got her PhD at age 20?!"

"Why yes," she chuckled. "It looks like someone did their research."

"You're like my idol!" I said, my cheeks flushing red. I had found her work fascinating even before I had developed an accidental interest in the scientific community! "Your work on cellular mutation is amazing!"

"Well it's nice to know I've inspired some people around here. What's your name?"

"Blake," I said as I shook her hand. "Blake Christopher."

"Well," she said. "I am looking for an assistant, and you do seem pretty good for the job…"

"Yes, YES!" I said to her. "I'd be GREAT for the job!"

"Just fill this out and get parental confirmation and I'll go over it," she said as she handed me a sheet of paper for me to fill out. I couldn't believe what was happening. "I have a few other resumes to look over as well so I'll get to you about the assistant's position by next week. I'd like it if you got it in by tonight. Here's my card." She handed me a white card with her work number on it.

"Okay… okay great!" I stuffed the paper and card into my schoolbag as well. "Thank you so much Dr. Owens!" I walked out of the lab feeling great. Until I looked at my watch. "Crap!" I exclaimed. I was 15 minutes late for tutoring Krissy! I slung my bag over my shoulder and ran out of the park towards home, where Krissy surely already was.

If I wouldn't have been blinded by the incredible opportunity that was waiting for me, I would have realized that I had left the slide underneath the microscope for anyone to find.

I ran into my house and up to my room, where Krissy was already waiting.

"There you are!" she said flirtatiously. "I was wondering if you had skipped out on me!"

"Krissy, I'm here to tutor you. That's all, okay?!"

She giggled. "Sure Blake, let's pretend…"

I stopped. "Krissy I'm totally serious. Stop."

She sighed and sat down. "It's all right Blake, we'll take it slow." I rolled my eyes and got out my science books.

"Okay," I started. "Did you finish page 66 through 68, 1-29 odd numbers? Plus 1-5 on page 115?"

She sighed. "Yep. And it took a _lot_ of my valuable time to do that, so I hope you're happy." She handed over some sheets of paper. I looked through them and pointed out a few mistakes before handing it back.

"Good," I said. "Now…" I accidentally bumped my bag and the white case fell out, Lainey's skin sample out in plain sight. I quickly put it back in the case as Krissy asked "What's that?" I ignored her as I shut the case, but I realized that there was a small corner of the skin missing.

_The slide,_ I thought to myself. I froze. I had left the slide in the lab. The lab where a well-known scientist has been for a good ten minutes…

I quickly stuffed the box into my bag and ran out the door.

"Blake?!" called out Krissy. "Blake, where are you going?!"

I didn't stop to talk to her as I ran back to the Marine Park towards the lab. I was about to go in before Dr. Owens walked out and bumped into me.

"Dr. Owens!" I said nervously. Of all the luck…

"Blake," she acknowledged me. "What are you doing back here?" she asked.

"Oh, I…" I tried looking past her into the lab but she was blocking my way. "I… um… I was just wondering…"

"Here," she said. "I need to get to the dolphin tank. Talk while I go there."

I looked longingly into the lab but walked with her towards the dolphin tanks. "I was just wondering if…" I thought. "If…. I could turn in the resume tomorrow? My parents aren't home today but I can get them to sign it tomorrow morning."

"Oh, sure," she said. "You know you could have just called my number. I did give you my card, right?"

"Oh, right," I laughed nervously. "I just wanted to talk to you in person."

"That's great but I'm a busy woman. Stuff to do…" We were close to the dolphin tanks.

"Alright, well, I guess I'll be going then." I started walking towards the lab.

"Wrong way," said Owens.

"Huh?" I asked.

"You are going towards the exit, right?" she asked. "The exits that way," she pointed towards the opposite direction that I was going.

"Oh, yeah, I knew that." I turned that way and thought I could just go around and backtrack towards the lab. "See ya…"

"Blake," said Owens. "I know you didn't come all this way to ask about the resume. When I came in earlier you were doing some tests weren't you?"

"Umm…" No use trying to deny it, especially if she had already seen the sample, which I was hoping she hadn't. "Yeah…"

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," she said. "You can go get whatever you forgot, if that's what this is about."

"Thank you so much Dr. Owens!" I said gratefully. But there was one more thing I needed to know before going back to the lab. "Hey, did you happen to see the sample at all?" I asked.

"No," she admitted. "But I would have liked to. Whatever it was must have been an interest to you if you came to my lab to study it."

"Oh, it was just something I found on the beach," I lied. "Bye!" She waved goodbye as I ran towards the lab.

I went in and dashed towards the microscope I had used and checked the slide underneath it. But there was nothing on it. I checked again. Still… nothing.

_Did Dr. Owens lie to me?_ I thought to myself. I wouldn't have thought so, she didn't seem like the type, but maybe she did. After checking a few more items of equipment to see if maybe she had put it somewhere else, I ran back to the dolphin tanks so confront her. But she was nowhere to be found.

I sulked back home in defeat, slamming the door of my room.

"Looking for this?" asked a voice behind me. I turned to see Krissy holding a white box sort of like mine, but with the Marine Park's logo on it.

She opened the box and took out a clear slide, with the skin sample on it. I felt a lump rise in my throat.

"Where did you get that?" I asked her.

"Well," she started as she looked at the slide. "When you left, I took a look at that sample in your box before following you. When I saw you go off with Dr. Owens, I went inside the lab and found a slide with another skin sample. So I took a look at it."

"Great, now can I have that back?" I asked. She wagged her finger back and forth for "no". So I waited.

"Then I realized something strange," The lump in my throat grew bigger. "Doing what you had instructed me to do with any sample, I put a few drops of water on it. And when I looked at the computer, the molecules of the sample had changed. But you know all about that." My face paled. "So then I grabbed the slide and- oh my! It's not skin anymore, it's something gold and round, like a… scale." I gulped.

"Well that's pretty odd," I said. "But I had just found it at the beach and…" She snorted.

"Right. Sure." She grabbed a piece of paper and looked at it. "Found it on the beach. Like I could believe that." She tilted her head as she inspected the paper in front of her. "At first when I saw this picture come out from the local fish scanners while I was in the lab, I thought it was fake. But then realization hit. They never go around water do they?" She passed the paper to me. "Ten seconds right?"

I slowly flipped over the paper she had handed to me and my eyes bulged. It was a photo. Of Bella, Nicole, and…

"Lainey…" I whispered. They were swimming around one of the shark breeding grounds, where one of the scanners had obviously been placed. Huge and bright smiles were lit on their faces and their tails were in plain sight. There was no doubt that it was them.

"Yes. Your girlfriend." She grabbed the photo. "But not anymore."

"What do you mean?" I asked her. "What did you do to her?!"

She laughed. "It's not what I'm going to do to her Blake, it's what _you're_ going to do to her. Unless you want Dr. Owens to get a hold of these."

"What makes you think she'll believe you?" I asked.

"Well, it helps when she's my aunt." She grinned.

"Shit," I whispered.

"Now, here's the deal…" She said as she sat next to me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. I didn't like where this was going.

_End of Flashback_

If only I hadn't been so STUPID and went to that lab to study the scale, none of this would have happened! I would still be with Lainey, Krissy would have some well deserved revenge, and life would be normal… or at least, as normal as possible.

I suddenly realized I was in my boat. I must have gone there while thinking. _Why not?_ I thought as I went out to sea. Not like I had something better to do.

I was so lucky that Krissy was going to a family function today. I've been so tired trying to be the "perfect" boyfriend to her. It's really hard!

Honestly, I don't know how she could live with herself knowing she was doing this. Not only to Lainey, but to me as well. She really was a bitch.

I thought of going to Lainey and trying to explain, but I really felt like keeping my blood inside my body, so I quickly dismissed that idea.

I got off my boat at Mako Island and started walking through the jungle. I knew my way to the cave well enough, and made it there pretty quickly.

Looking at the slippery slope which led to the entrance of the moon pool, I realized it could be seen fairly easily. I mean, what if someone just walked by and found the moon pool, with the three mermaids inside? It made me nervous just thinking about it, so I decided to do something about it.

I looked around for something to block the hole, and eventually found this big rock. I hauled it over there and put it in front of it. But when I took a look, it looked pretty lame. You could definitely tell that someone had put it there. So I went around and found some moss, and started sticking it around there, and put some more moss on the slippery parts. Then I took some more rocks and started arranged them around there. When I was done, it looked sort of like an old rock pile. I smiled my first real smile for a few days as I looked at my work.

I checked to see if it would move in case we needed to get in, which in did. Then I leaned into the hole, making sure not to fall in, and wrapped a vine around one of the rocks up here, draping it into the hole. You wouldn't be able to tell it was there, because of all the moss. To check it was working all right, I went into the hole using the vine, and once I was a bit away from the entrance, I moved the rock back, and then continued to go down. I reached the bottom, feeling proud of myself.

I heard some splashes and voices from inside the pool. Knowing the voices, I crept up to the side of the cave, where they couldn't see me.

"I can't believe Lainey was acting like that last night, blaming _us_ for the actions of her bastard of a boyfriend," said Nicole. Ouch, that hurt.

"Yeah, me neither," sighed Bella.

"Although I still want to know if it was true what she said about you and that Alex guy." Silence.

Hm, so Lainey had told Nicole. Probably out of anger. Anger at _me._ I felt even worse than before, if it was possible.

"It's true," she sighed. "But I had to keep it a secret. You guys never would have been okay with it."

"You didn't know that," said Nicole, probably putting her arm around Bella or some sort of comforting gesture like that. "I was just surprised, that's all. I mean, you and the random guy we found at Mako?"

"Hey, he's amazing!" protested Bella with a giggle. "And he's got great abs… and hair… and lips…"

I gagged. I really didn't need to hear that.

The cave got silent. "What was that?" asked Bella.

"Who's there?!" called out Nici.

I sighed. I was caught.

I turned the corner to see Nicole and Bella all dry sitting along the wall. They stood up when they saw me.

"You!" said Nicole and Bella at the same time. I saw their fingers start to twitch.

"Wait, please, listen…"

"Hmm, which should we do Bella," asked Nicole. "Freeze him bits by bits until it gets to his heart or just boil his blood?"

"Hmm, I like the sound of both… how about you get one half and I get the other?" They both raised their hands.

"Wait, PLEASE!" I begged. Bella clenched her fist.

I felt static in the air before a huge lightning bolt struck right next to me, missing me by an inch, and knocking me off my feet.

"Woah!" I cried out. What was that?!

I thought of the night before, where Lainey had controlled the wind. Did their powers get an upgrade or something?!

"What was that…" breathed Bella, voicing my thoughts.

"Lainey had said she controlled wind last night," said Nicole. "What if this is connected? Did we get an upgrade or something?!"

Sometimes it's creepy how we all think alike.

They both thought for a minute before turning to me. "We can deal with that later," said Nici. "We have to deal with this thing first…"

"Guys, please! I was forced! I had no choice!" Bella rolled her eyes as Nicole snorted.

"That's what they all say," She was *this*close to flash freezing me. Although with the advanced power she surely had, who knew what it would do?

"Krissy had proof that mermaids exist!" I burst out. They stopped.

"What?" asked Bella.

"I did something foolish and she found proof that you are all mermaids, complete with a cell sample and picture."

"How did _that_ happen?!" demanded Nicole.

I sighed as I explained to them the fiasco from four days ago. They both were shocked.

"Blake, this actually isn't your fault," said Bella. "You did something good."

"WHAT?!" Nicole and I asked in astonishment.

"Yeah," said Bella. "If you think about it, if you hadn't led Krissy there, Dr. Owens would have been the one who would have seen the picture, not Krissy."

"I hadn't thought about it that way…" I whispered.

"I still think you shouldn't have been in that lab messing around with the equipment," said Nicole. "Way too much was at stake."

"Well it didn't help that we were swimming in those areas," insisted Bella. "Why didn't we see the cameras?!"

"I don't know," said Nicole. "But we should go talk to Lainey. Explain." She looked at me. "It would probably be best if you didn't come with us.

"Yeah…"

They walked over to the pool. "And we can talk about this weird power thing later," said Nicole before they both dived in.

I let out a sigh of relief. The secret was eating away at me, even though it's only been a secret for four days. Hopefully Lainey would believe what Nicole and Bella have to say.

I got out of the cave through the hole and, after putting the rock back where it was, I got back on my boat towards the mainland. I just wish I could somehow make all of this up to Lainey. But that seemed pretty impossible to me.

**(A/N: So I finally finished this one! So now you know why Blake has been acting all weird! Well I hope you liked it and please review! I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my last chapter as well. Now this is sort of off the subject, but I started a new fanfic! :D It's called Three Girls, Three Powers, and is about three girls- duh- Katrina, Aubree, and Samara who are best friends on and a night where a shooting star passes by them, they all make separate wishes not knowing that they were chosen to receive magical powers. Here's the summary:**

When 3 best friends, Katrina, Aubree, and Samara, wish upon a shooting star on a very special night, the next day they find out that they have mysterious & magical powers. In this story based off of the ideas of Charmed, with some ideas from H2O and PLL, they try to control their new found powers while dealing with everyday teen problems and not so everyday magical problems.

**I have a few chapters up but others will be coming soon. So go read that and don't forget to review both stories! P.s. I will try to keep up with both stories, but forgive me if it takes a while sometimes, especially since school starts in 2 weeks! Eek! Well, have fun in the last days of summer! Ciao!)**


	29. BE POV Attempted Explanations

*Bella Edwards*

As Nicole and I swam towards the mainland, the suddenness of this situation hit me.

Just last night, only _last night_, we had been getting ready to go to Krissy's boat party. Everything just spiraled from there. And before I knew it, Blake was cheating on Lainey with Krissy, both my friends knew I was secretly dating Alex, and we had gotten crazy new powers. All before I could even blink. You think I would have gotten used to these weird things happening so suddenly, huh? Yeah… not so much…

We shot forward in the water, the bright sun creating a spectrum of light in the swirling ocean around us. My anxiety crept up into my chest, and I shivered in the ocean, disrupting my path of… uh, swim? … I don't really know…

Anyways, we both made it to the sandy shore, where we quickly scooted ourselves onto land. I dried us off using my powers before we hopped onto our feet. I adjusted the top of my strapless tube top and fidgeted with the denim of my sequined capris as Nicole just shrugged a bit, letting her tank top and athletic shorts adjust themselves. We then ran towards Lainey's house, which was luckily not too far from the ocean.

Nici was the one to walk up to the door. She hesitated before knocking on the door. No one answered. She looked at me, and I just shrugged. Sighing, she opened the door slowly, a long _creeeeak _sounding throughout the house.

Nicole checked the main room and kitchen to see if anyone was there before shouting out, "LAINEY!" There wasn't an answer.

"Do you think she's out with her family?" I asked her. Nicole shook her head.

"I think she would have told us."

"Well we _did _just have a fight, and then decided to ignore her calls." Nicole sighed, realizing I was probably right.

"Let's just go check upstairs, 'kay?" I nodded. We went over towards the tall staircase with the large white banister and hopped up the steps, two at a time. Carefully opening the doors to first Destiny's room and then Lainey's, we found her sleeping body curled up onto her bed in her everyday clothes, tear stains evident on her splotchy cheeks and a tub of ice cream by her side.

"Wow…" said Nicole quietly. "She looks…"

"Terrible?" I offered. She simply nodded. Walking quietly towards her, she furrowed her brow, looking over our friend's body. I suddenly felt really guilty for getting mad at her the night before. After all, she was sort of going through a lot right now. But she really had gotten to me with that Alex comment… Anyways, it didn't matter right now. I was sure she wouldn't be mad at me anymore.

Nicole walked forward and shook her lightly. "Lainey?" she whispered. Lainey's eyes fluttered softly before…

They snapped open. She sat up in a blinding speed and outstretched her hand, causing a strong wind to push a flailing Nicole to the end of her bedroom, where she slumped against the floor, unconscious.

…So maybe she _was _still mad at us…

**A/N: … Wow… I feel so bad for not getting this up sooner… especially since it's so short… But hey, consider this your Christmas present from me to you. Or, if you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever, then um… Happy… whatever your holiday is…**

**Anyways, you all probably want to know why I took so long to update, right? Alright, I'll tell you…**

**First of all, I started this chapter shortly after chapter 28, like I usually would with my chapters for this story. I had gotten up to the part where it said, "We shot forward in the water…" when suddenly, all train of thought just **_**stopped. **_**I'm serious, I couldn't think of ANYTHING to have in here! I thought of a ton of possibilities… but none really felt right to me.**

**Then school started, and I was crazy busy. I had a bedtime again (since I have to get up at 6 every morning) and it was driving me crazy. I still managed to get onto my laptop and try to start this again every once in a while, but I was still stuck in my **_**awesome**_** writer's block (please note the sarcasm there).**

**After a while, I… gave up. Yes, I'm totally ashamed of it, but I felt as if maybe I should take a break from this story and start doing other things. So I did for a while.**

**Then… there was an incident involving me being very **_**very **_**bored in my basement one Friday night with Netflix on the TV and I found a cartoon that I remembered watching one episode of when I was seven or something like that. So I checked it out and, being how it was very late and I don't think the smartest thoughts, continued to watch it… until 6 AM.**

**Yes, this show was Danny Phantom, and I will shamelessly admit I totally love it now.**

… **Okay, so maybe not shamelessly, since I considering murdering my best friends when they started teasing me about it and started shouting it to the heavens (or so it seemed, from my perspective) that I was in love with Danny Phantom (cue me being so embarrassed I wanted to go die in a hole). **

**Then came the whole thing where, after getting grounded for three weeks from the TV, where I also got over my Pretty Little Liars addiction, I finished all three seasons. I wanted more obviously, and after we got rid of Netflix, I realized something- I could go on FanFiction and read fanfics about Danny Phantom!**

**Now here is where I finally remembered my friggin' story on here! I tried to start it up again, but that writer inside of me was all, "No! Go write about Danny Phantom!"**

**So I succumbed to that evil little voice inside of me (*glares at the evil voice who backs away slowly, but is obviously joking since I'm a total wimp who couldn't beat up a butterfly*) and started writing DP fics. I really got into it, and before I knew it, it was November and I had about 600 favorite stories- **_**all **_**involving Danny Phantom. I felt very guilty about not updating this story or my Charmed one (although, not to badly for that one, since it was sort of a guilty pleasure of mine that I kind of did whenever), but I ignored the guilty feeling and continued writing my stories.**

**Then came NaNoWriMo, where I finally got back into mermaids and tried writing a story about sirens (since I had gotten inspiration from the story "Wake" by Amanda Hocking, seriously my favorite author). It kind of sucks now that I think about it, and I never actually finished it… but that's what I was up to most of November.**

**And here we arrive in December. Finishing some DP stories and starting another original story (that I actually like where it is going), I again put aside this story… until I get a wake-up call from Clove31. She was all, "Dude, continue this story you freaking butthole!" … Okay so maybe she never said that… but it was something like that. O.o**

**So I finally realized that I needed to continue this, writer's block or not. I pushed through- and really, it was quite a struggle- and got this measly chapter over with. Yes, I realize how sad it is that this author's note is in fact longer than the actual chapter, but hey, that's life for you.**

**So here comes the apology- I'm so incredibly sorry for everyone who was disappointed because I didn't continue this story longer. I'm sorry to keep you waiting, and when you finally check in again you find this sucky chapter. I'll be trying so incredibly hard to get the next chapter up soon- I'm making my deadline next month, and I swear I'll beat myself with a frying pan if I don't make it- and I hope I can redeem myself in the eyes of my fans. :'( Or… the few fans I actually have…**

**Well, I guess that's this chapter, and I thank you guys for all your patience, and give even more thanks to Clove31, who helped push me into continuing this, Marril96, who left supportive reviews that encouraged me to get back into the plot, mochimochimochi32 for further making me feel guilty about not working on this, and lastly, the others who reviewed- AliNicole99 (yes, I am continuing the story, btw…) and Guest. Every review pushed me a little farther to get back into this, and I thank you guys for that help!**

**Also thanks to Clove31 for noticing on my profile that my birthday was on December 17****th**** and sent me a little happy bday PM for it! ^.^ Kudos to her too for guessing how old I turned! (To Clove31- Shhh, don't tell…)**

**BTW, I think I might put up a story in the H2O section on here based on a hilariously stupid project my friend did for her Tech & Comm. (Technology and Communication, in case you didn't know) class. She had to make a short video using some computer program and made this hilarious thing about me being a mermaid… it was so stupid it was funny. I'm laughing right now thinking about it, actually. If you think I should put up what happened in it in a little short story One-Shot type thing, say so in a review or PM, because I might just do it… if not to make my lovely little fans all happy.**

**So again, thank you again for being so patient (well, unless you're Clove31… KIDDING! :P) and for waiting for this chapter. I can't begin to explain how much it means to me.**

**Now, I leave you with this one optimistic note-**

**At least I didn't wait an entire year to update. Because that would have been way worse. **

**;D**


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